Drafted by Lord Macaulay, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises homosexuality, reflected the social mores of Victorian England. England of course has moved on, but mindful of a religious backlash, the Indian political class has never repealed the law, leaving the courts to be seen as the last resort. Which is why reports that the UPA government is working to decriminalise homosexuality are so welcome. Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, along with Home Minister

P. Chidambaram, seems to favour overturning the ban. Hopefully, the new incumbents in the health, law and home ministries will bring new courage to resolve an age-old

embarrassment.

The bid to decriminalise homosexuality is not the only sign that legal reform is in the offing. In seeking to address the judicial backlog, arguably our biggest legal problem, Moily has suggested a slew of changes (see Op-Ed page). He talks of reducing government litigation (the bulk of the pending cases) by administrative reform, including holding officers responsible for decisions instead of simply passing the buck on to the courts. As Moily also points out, improving methods for collecting evidence — like installing the latest forensic and scientific equipment in police stations — do not require constitutional amendments. On judicial accountability, the sheer logistics of impeaching Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta high court (even after the chief justice has recommended it, and the government has agreed) highlights the need for a systemic overhaul. Moily seems alive to this problem, and is pushing for impeachment proceedings to begin. But he also talks of the need to take the higher judiciary along with him, especially in sensitive matters like making judges’ assets public. And on reforming the IAS (itself a significant litigant in the courts), the writer of 15 volumes of the Administrative Reforms Commission’s recommendations, talks about the “creative destruction of Macaulay’s system”, of the need to recruit IAS officers when they are younger, and of the need for accountability.

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