The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to the Centre seeking its reply on a plea by a group of 20 former and current IIT students challenging Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalises unnatural sex between two consenting adults of the same gender.

A Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A. M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud ordered tagging of the plea with other similar petitions referred by the court to a five-judge Constitution Bench on January 8.

The 20 IITians, including scientists, teachers, entrepreneurs and researchers of different age groups, who all are Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgenders (LGBT), have claimed that criminalisation of sexual orientation has resulted in a “sense of shame, loss of self-esteem and stigma”.