Petitions prompt review of 1860s gay ban in India

• Eastern Eye Staff
• 13 July, 2018

By: Eastern Eye Staff

PROSECUTIONS UNDER SECTION 377 OF THE PENAL CODE ARE RARE INDIA’S top court began reviewing on Tuesday (10) petitions against a colonial-era ban on ho­mosexuality, in the latest chapter of a legal tussle between social and religious conservatives and more liberal Indians. Section 377 of the penal code, a relic from 1860s British legislation, bans gay acts as “carnal inter­course against the order of nature” and allows for jail terms of up to life, although prosecutions are rare. In 2009 the Delhi High Court effectively decrimi­nalised gay sex, saying a ban violated fundamental rights, but the Supreme Court reinstated it…

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