India's Supreme Court on Thursday struck down the nation's ban on same-sex relations.

According to The New York Times, Chief Justice Dipak Misra described the law, known as Section 377 of the Indian penal code, as “irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary.” The decision was unanimous.

The British colonial-era law criminalized sexual behavior “against the order of nature.” Violators faced up to ten years in prison.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), America's largest LGBT rights advocate, cheered the ruling.

“This monumental decision by India's Supreme Court finally ends a deeply discriminatory law that violated the dignity and most fundamental rights of LGBTQ people in India,” said HRC Global Director Ty Cobb.

The law was first struck down in 2009 by the Delhi High Court of India. But in 2013, India's Supreme Court threw out the lower court's ruling, saying that only lawmakers could change the law.

A group of LGBT citizens petitioned the court to reconsider its earlier decision with a larger panel of judges. Plaintiffs argued that the law violates a person's right to privacy.

Jessica Stern, executive director of OutRight Action International, explained that the decision would have implications beyond India.

“When you work on LGBTIQ rights at an international level, your work constantly leads you back to colonialism and the penal codes that were imposed globally as instruments of control and domination,” Stern said in a statement. “The sodomy law that became the model everywhere from Uganda to Singapore to the UK itself premiered in India, becoming the confusing and dehumanizing standard replicated around the world. Today’s decision to strike down the 377 law once and for all is a triumph. It is the culmination of years of community organizing, changing social attitudes, strategic use of the courts, and an LGBITQ movement in India that refused to give up. The decision decriminalizes homosexuality in India and also affirms the rights to privacy and non-discrimination. Today's historic outcome will reverberate across India and the world.”