India’s Finance Minister has spoken out against a 2013 Supreme Court ruling which upheld a colonial-era law criminalising gay sex. Arun Jaitley says the “conservative” law, which is punishable with up to ten years in prison, ignores the needs of “millions of people” across India and the judgement needs to be reconsidered. Described as a “black day” for LGBTI rights, in 2013 the Supreme Court overturned a 2009 High Court ruling that stated that the colonial-era gay sex law is unconstitutional. “As jurisprudence world over is evolving, I think the judgement was not correct and probably at some stage they may have to reconsider,” he said. ‘When millions of people world over are having alternative sexual preferences, it is too late in the day to propound a view that they should be jailed. The Delhi High Court’s view appears more acceptable.” Over a one year period it has been reported that 385 criminal cases have been registered against consenting adults engaging in gay sex.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 1st December 2015 - 1:14pm