India’s Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it would reexamine its decision upholding a law that criminalizes gay sex.
In 2009 – just days after gay activists staged Gay Pride parades in several cities for the first time – the Delhi High Court of India declared intercourse between two consenting members of the same sex legal.
The verdict overturned a law that banned gay sex in India, a holdover from British colonial rule, known as Section 377 of India’s penal code. Violators of the law face up to 10 years in jail.
The Supreme Court in 2013 threw out the lower court’s ruling, saying only lawmakers could change Section 377.
Because the high court refused to put on hold the lower court’s landmark ruling as an appeal moved forward, the decision upholding the law shocked LGBT rights advocates.
Activists cheered Tuesday’s decision.
“It seems to indicate they’re ready to hear the matter, which is good,” lawyer Anand Grover told the Los Angeles Times.
The high court said that it would appoint a five-judge panel to hear activists’ so-called curative petition, which allows the court to reverse a decision viewed as a “miscarriage of justice.”
by Carlos Santoscoy
Source – On Top Magazine
