India’s top court might reinstate law against gay sex

The Indian Supreme Court is pondering whether to reverse a lower-court ruling that overturned the Indian law against homosexual activity.

[But by the end of 2012, the court had not done so, which suggests that it won’t.]

A month of legal arguments concluded Monday, March 26, on several petitioners’ challenge to a Delhi High Court verdict in 2009 that decriminalized same-sex acts by consenting adults in private.

Supreme Court judges criticized the Indian government for repeatedly changing position on the appeal. In the end, the government supported the 2009 ruling.

“It would appear that the introduction of Section 377 (making gay sex offence) in India was not a reflection of existing Indian values and traditions. Rather, it was imposed upon Indian society due to the moral views of the colonizers,” Attorney General GE Vahanwati said, as reported by CNN-IBN.

“Indian society prevalent before the enactment … had a much greater tolerance for homosexuality than its British counterpart, which at that time was under the influence of Victorian morality and values in regard to family and the procreative nature of sex,” he said.

Groups challenging the 2009 ruling include the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, the Utkal Christian Council, the Apostolic Churches Alliance and the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Right.

Under the previous law, gay sex was a crime punishable by life in prison.

The Supreme Court was told its ruling would affect a gay population estimated at 2.5 million, including about 175,000 infected with HIV. Public health officials said they hoped to provide AIDS-prevention services to 400,000 high-risk gay men who have sex with other men, including 200,000 currently receiving those services.