Latest chapter in legal battle between social and religious conservatives and gay community over law passed by British
India’s supreme court has agreed to re-examine a previous judgment that upheld a law criminalising homosexuality, offering hope to gay rights organisations that have been holding vigils and demonstrations in Delhi.
A panel of three judges said the ruling in 2013 would be revisited by a larger bench of judges.
“It is definitely a step forward,” lawyer Anand Grover said as activists gathered outside the courtroom cheered.
The 2013 judgment reinstated colonial-era legislation that in effect outlawed gay sex and stunned many in India, overturning decades of slow progress andprompting protests.
The referral to a large bench of judges is the latest chapter in a long-running legal battle between India’s social and religious conservatives and the gay community over the law passed by the British in the 1860s.
