September 3, 2009 | Sex & Society

India won't fight gay rights in court

India has taken one step further in decriminalizing gay sex by not taken a stand on the Delhi high court's ruling that legalized homosexual relations in July. The supreme court will now be left to decide on whether the ruling will stand, without the government intervening one way or the other.

"The correctness of the Delhi high court judgment has been challenged in an appeal before the supreme court,” said a cabinet note. “The government may submit before the supreme court that there does not appear to be any legal error in the judgment and the supreme court may take a final view whether the judgment of the high court is legally correct," it says.

Should the supreme court uphold the lower court’s groundbreaking ruling, the sodomy law - in effect since 1860 - will no longer apply to consenting adults getting it on in private.

Indian govt to accept gay sex ruling: report [AFP]