India's Supreme Court on Tuesday began
review of its decision upholding a law that criminalizes gay sex with
up to ten years in prison.
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 sex 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.
In 2013, the Supreme Court threw out
the lower court's ruling, saying that only lawmakers could change the
law.
“In view of the above discussion, we
hold that Section 377 IPC does not suffer from the vice of
unconstitutionality and the declaration made by the Division Bench of
the High court is legally unsustainable,” the court said in its
2013 ruling.
The ruling was highly criticized,
leading to the court's 2016 decision to review its verdict.
The court is hearing six petitions
challenging its previous ruling. According to CNN, the hearings are
expected to last two weeks.