A three-member judge panel of the High Court’s Constitutional Court in Blantyre has dismissed the case of two applicants who wanted the Court to legalise same-sex relationships.
The Court has declined to strike off from Penal Code provisions that criminalise same-sex, pitting the applicants backed by some local and international human rights activists bodies who wanted to have the provisions declared unconstitutional.
State lawyers celebrated the outcome while those who wanted the provisions declared unconstitutional did not hide their disappointment.
The judgement was delivered by justices Joseph Chigona, Chimbigzani Kacheche and Vikochi Chima, who started reading the nail-biting judgement at 9:05 am.
Senior State Advocate Lali Ali Bonomali, who represented the Hon. the Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda, said this is the judgement they were waiting for and applauded the Court for a job well done.
The two applicants, Jan Willem Akster, from the Netherlands, and Jana Gonani, who were answering criminal charges in magistrate courts of sleeping with fellow men, brought the matter to the Constitutional Court for interpretation of the provisions in the Penal Code, urging the Court to declare them unconstitutional.
One of the legal provisions the applicants wanted the Court to declare unconstitutional was section153 of the Penal Code which reads: “Any person who— (a) has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature; or (c) permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature; shall be guilty of a felony and shall be liable to imprisonment for 14 year.”
The court has ordered their criminal matter in the lower court to continue.
