The repeal of section 377
In 1861, during British colonial rule, Section 377 was introduced into the Indian Penal Code: a law with origins in England’s Buggery Act of 1533. This marked, in Victorian language, India’s criminalisation of homosexuality. With the independence of India in 1947, Section 377 survived. In 2009 the Delhi High Court, in response to a petition by the Naz Foundation, ruled that Section 377’s references to homosexual sex were unconstitutional, thus effectively decriminalising homosexuality. Various petitions attempted to challenge this ruling, one of which made it to the Supreme Court of India —...