INDIA’S government said on Thursday (December 12) it would look at ways to swiftly reverse a shock ruling which reinstated a ban on gay sex, accusing the Supreme Court of dragging the country back to the 19th century.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who doubles up as the government’s chief spokesman, said gay rights legislation could be drawn up following Wednesday (December 11)’s verdict but warned that such a move would be time-consuming.
Law Minister Kapil Sabil pledged that the government would take “firm and quick action” to alter what he called an anachronistic law.
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.
But in a shock judgement on Wednesday, a panel of two Supreme Court judges ruled that the High Court had overstepped its authority and that a law passed in 1860 during British colonial rule was still valid.
“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.”
Sibal confirmed that the government was considering its “options” to prevent millions of people being categorised as criminals.
“This is not a law that fits in with the times, you cannot have an antediluvian and anachronistic law like this,” he told reporters.
“Time is of essence, we believe in taking quick action, the government believes in firm and quick action.”
The ruling was met with dismay by gay rights activists who called it a “Black Day” for India while newspapers said the judgement was an embarrassing throwback.
However the prospects of any gay rights laws being passed ahead of elections due next May look remote as Congress and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been at loggerheads for months.
Chidambaram proposed that the government seek a review of the judgement before a larger panel of senior judges, saying that judicial interpretation of law could not remain “static”.
“I think the government should ask for a review or file a curative petition and ask that the matter be considered by a bench of five judges,” he said.
The judgement has been widely condemned outside India as well, with the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay calling it “a significant step backwards for India”.
“Criminalising private, consensual same-sex sexual conduct violates the rights to privacy and to non-discrimination enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which India has ratified,” Pillay said in a statement.
