A top Indian court issued a landmark ruling yesterday decriminalizing gay sex between consenting adults, overturning colonial-era legislation that outlawed homosexuality.
The New Delhi High Court ruled that an existing statute prohibiting homosexual acts was discriminatory and therefore a “violation of fundamental rights” accorded under the Constitution.
The statute in question is a British colonial-era law outlawing “carnal intercourse against the order of nature.”
Conviction carried a fine and a maximum 10-year jail sentence.
Although prosecutions were rare, gay activists said police used the law to harass and intimidate members of their community.
The High Court ruling was made on a petition brought by the Naz Foundation, a gay advocacy group fighting for equal rights and AIDS awareness.
“This is a long awaited and incredible judgment,” gay rights activist Gautam Bhan said. “The judges in their verdict spoke about inclusivity, quality and dignity. They spoke about a vision of India as an open, tolerant society and to hear all this from the Delhi High Court was amazing.”
While the ruling is non-binding outside the Indian capital, lawyers supporting the petition said it set a precedent that effectively decriminalized consensual gay sex nationwide.
The petition had been staunchly opposed by religious groups, particularly leaders of India’s Muslim and Christian communities, who argued that all homosexual acts were “unnatural’ and should therefore be banned.
Gay sex has long been a taboo subject in conservative India, where many still regard homosexuality as an illness.
In recent years, however, the country’s largely closeted homosexual community has raised its profile, organizing gay pride marches in major cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai.
“I feel very proud to be an Indian today. This was a very just ruling,” openly gay fashion designer Wendell Rodericks said. “The entire legal community was in favor, I think, of the act being declared legal if it was between consenting adults.”
The Indian government has offered mixed messages on its policy regarding the decriminalization of gay sex, with some ministers speaking out in favor of the petition, only to be contradicted by others in the Cabinet.
“The government can’t ignore this,” Naz Foundation executive director Anjali Gopalan told reporters after the ruling was announced.
Law Minister Veerappa Moily said last weekend that he would be meeting with his Cabinet colleagues from the home and health ministries to review the existing legislation.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS