Sonia disappointed with SC ruling on gay sex, Rahul backs HC order decriminalising it

After Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday expressed disappointment with the Supreme Court ruling reinstating a colonial-era ban on gay sex, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi said such matters should be left to individuals. He supported the 2009 order by Delhi high court that had decreminalised homosexuality.

A two-judge bench struck down a landmark Delhi high court ruling in 2009 which found that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code prohibiting "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" infringed the fundamental rights of Indians.

"The government is considering all options to restore the (Delhi) high court verdict on (Section) 377. We must decriminalise adult consensual relationships," Union law minister Kapil Sibal said.

While Gandhi expressed hope that Parliament will uphold the constitutional guarantee of life and liberty to all citizens including those directly affected by the Supreme Court judgment, finance minister P Chidambaram accused the apex court of dragging the country back to the 19th century and called for a swift reversal of the ruling.

"I am disappointed that the Supreme Court reversed the previous Delhi high court ruling on the issue of gay rights," Gandhi said in a statement.

"We are proud that our culture has always been an inclusive and tolerant one," she said.

She also said that Delhi high court had wisely removed an archaic, repressive and unjust lawthat infringed on basic human rights.

"This Constitution has given us a great legacy, a legacy of liberalism and openness, that enjoin us to combat prejudice and discrimination of any kind," the Congress president said.

Chidambaram said gay rights legislation could be drawn up following Wednesday's verdict but warned that such a move would be time-consuming.

"What we have done is go back in time to 1860 and I'm terribly disappointed," Chidambaram told the NDTV network.

"We must explore ways and means in which this judgement can be reversed very quickly. Legislation is one way to reverse it but that may take time.

"(While) not giving up that option of legislation, we must explore other ways and I am willing to sit with my colleagues to find out if there are other ways in which this judgement might be reversed."

Gay sex had been effectively legalised in 2009 when the Delhi high court ruled that a section of the penal code prohibiting "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" was an infringement of fundamental rights.

The decision four years ago to decriminalise gay sex emboldened the still largely closeted homosexual community which has since campaigned publicly against widespread discrimination and ignorance.

Mumbai: Activists of LGBT community react after Supreme Court's verdict on homosexuality, in Mumbai on Wednesday. 

The bench, headed by GS Singhvi on his last day before retirement, found the high court had overstepped its authority and that a law passed by the British in 1860 was still constitutionally valid.

"It is up to Parliament to legislate on this issue," Singhvi said in the judgment.

The ruling was met with dismay by gay rights activists who called it a "Black Day" for India.

The prospects of any gay rights laws being passed ahead of elections due next May look remote as the ruling Congress party and the opposition have been at loggerheads for months.

In a Hindustantimes.com poll conducted on Wednesday, over 80% of the respondents answered in the negative, when asked whether they agree with the Supreme Court's order of criminalising homosexuality again.