India's Supreme Court announced Tuesday
that it would reexamine its decision upholding a law that
criminalizes gay sex.
In 2009 – just days after gay
activists staged Gay Pride parades in several cities for the first
time – the Delhi High Court of India declared intercourse between
two consenting members of the same sex legal.
The verdict overturned a law that
banned gay sex in India, a holdover from British colonial rule, known
as Section 377 of India's penal code. Violators of the law face up
to 10 years in jail.
The Supreme Court in 2013 threw out the
lower court's ruling, saying only lawmakers could change Section 377.
Because the high court refused to put
on hold the lower court's landmark ruling as an appeal moved forward,
the decision upholding the law shocked LGBT rights advocates.
Activists cheered Tuesday's decision.
“It seems to indicate they're ready
to hear the matter, which is good,” lawyer Anand Grover told the
Los
Angeles Times.
The high court said that it would
appoint a five-judge panel to hear activists' so-called curative
petition, which allows the court to reverse a decision viewed as a
“miscarriage of justice.”