NEW DELHI: India's Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a colonial-era ban on gay sex at the centre of years of legal battles. The landmark Supreme Court of India verdict ends a colonial-era ban on gay sex"The law had become a weapon for harassment for the LGBT community," chief justice Dipak Misra said as he announced the landmark verdict. Activists had been fighting the ban since the 1990s, suffering several court reverses before Thursday's verdict which sparked celebrations among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups across the vast South Asian nation. Gay sex has long been taboo in conservative India -- particularly in rural areas where homophobia is widespread. The Delhi High Court decriminalised gay sex in 2009, but the Supreme Court reinstated legal sanctions in 2014 after a successful appeal by religious groups.

Source: Bangkok Post September 06, 2018 07:48 UTC