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Gay sex 'not criminal' in India Gay sex 'not criminal' in India
(20 minutes later)
A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has ruled that homosexual intercourse between consenting adults is not a criminal act.A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has ruled that homosexual intercourse between consenting adults is not a criminal act.
The ruling overturns a 145-year-old colonial law which describes a same-sex relationship as an "unnatural offence". The ruling overturns a 148-year-old colonial law which describes a same-sex relationship as an "unnatural offence".
Many people in conservative India regard same-sex relationships as illegal or even blasphemous. Homosexual acts were punishable by a 10-year prison sentence.
Rights group say India's laws on homosexuality threaten human rights and encourage the spread of HIV. Many people in India regard same-sex relationships as illegitimate. Rights groups have long argued that the law contravened human rights.
Homosexuality in India can carry a 10-year sentence. Delhi's High Court ruled that the law outlawing homosexual acts was discriminatory and a "violation of fundamental rights".
The court said that a statute in Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which defines homosexual acts as "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" and made them illegal, was an "antithesis of the right to equality".
In 2004, the Indian government opposed a legal petition that sought to legalise homosexuality - a petition the high court in Delhi dismissed.