This was all over the wires yesterday.. good to see the final vestiges of colonial thought and law disappearing into the past where it belongs..
Bloomberg reports:
India Court Rules Gay Sex Legal, Rejects Colonial Law (Update1)
By P.S. Patnaik
July 2 (Bloomberg) — An Indian court ruled gay sex between consenting adults was not a crime, ordering that the rights of citizens were violated by parts of a 150-year-old colonial-era law that made it illegal.
“We declare that section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, in so far as it criminalizes consensual acts of others in private,” runs counter to basic human rights guaranteed by articles of the Indian constitution, Chief Justice A.P. Shah of the Delhi High Court said in a ruling.
Section 377, drafted by British rulers in 1860, has drawn criticism from public health activists as a barrier in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Parts of the law will continue to apply to forms of non-consensual sex, the ruling said.
Anjali Gopalan, director of the Naz Foundation which works to prevent the spread of HIV and began a legal challenge to the law in 2001, welcomed the ruling.
“We have been fighting for this right for eight years. Gay people are part of this democracy,” she said as around 100 gay and lesbian activists celebrated outside the court gates.
Naz had argued the law violated rights to privacy and equality guaranteed under the constitution, and was used to harass or blackmail gay men and women in return for money or sex.
Full report at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aR2q3nURHklI
