Govt will review law against homosexuality

After years of persistent refusal, the government has decided that section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) needs to be reviewed.

The section bans what is termed unnatural sex, criminalising sexual relationships among people of the same sex along with other perversions.

"There is a move from the government's side," Union law minister M Veerappa Moily said yesterday. "We are re-looking at the law. The Union home minister (P Chidambaram) has invited the health minister (Ghulam Nabi Azad), home ministers of all states, and me for consultations."

A petition challenging arrests under the law is pending in the Delhi High Court, where the health and home ministries were at loggerheads over decriminalisation of homosexuality. Former home minister Shivraj Patil and former health minister R Anbumani had taken conflicting stands in court.

Upset by the squabbling, prime minister Manmohan Singh had directed the ministers to resolve their differences. Terming the matter serious, the high court, too, had told the government to sort out the matter at the earliest.

While Moily refused to express his view on section 377, saying the matter was subjudice, he made it clear that the ministries would no longer take conflicting stands.

Incidentally, Delhi will host its second march of homosexuals on Sunday. Anjali Gopalan of The Naz Foundation, which filed the petition challenging the legality of section 377, welcomed the move.

The home ministry is against changing the law, arguing that homosexuality is not accepted by Indian society and a repeal of the law would open the floodgates of delinquent behaviour. Moreover, this is the only law on the statute books that can be applied in cases of child abuse and male rape.

But the health ministry has argued that homosexuals are vulnerable to HIV/Aids and so discrimination against them should end.