India: Government files for review of Supreme Court decision

'Let's hope the right to personal choices is preserved': law minister

India’s government is asking the Supreme Court to review its Dec 11 decision that set aside a lower court’s ruling that decriminalized gay sex, the BBC reports.

According to the report, the ruling Congress Party, in its filing, told the Supreme Court that its ruling breached the principle of equality and that the Delhi high court’s 2009 decision “is correct.”

Minister of Law and Justice Kapil Sibal, who tweeted about the government’s review petition, added, “Let’s hope the right to personal choices is preserved.”

The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Section 377, which prohibits “carnal knowledge against the order of nature,” has led to an outpouring of anger and criticism at what many in India and abroad have characterized as a significant setback for human rights in the country.

People in at least 36 cities around the world participated in Global Day of Rage rallies to publicly condemn the ruling.

Natasha Barsotti is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She had high aspirations of representing her country in Olympic Games sprint events, but after a while the firing of the starting gun proved too much for her nerves. So she went off to university instead. Her first professional love has always been journalism. After pursuing a Master of Journalism at UBC , she began freelancing at Xtra West — now Xtra Vancouver — in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter there in 2008.

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