Indian government asks Supreme Court to review anti-gay law
Indian activists console each other during a protest against the Supreme Court ruling reinstating a ban on gay sex, in Mumbai on December 11, 2013. India’s Supreme Court reinstated a colonial-era ban on gay sex on that could see homosexuals jailed for up to ten years in a major setback for rights campaigners in the world’s biggest democracy.
The Indian government has filed a petition to the Supreme Court arguing against its newly reinforced ban on homosexual acts, claiming that the move "violated the principle of equality."
India's Supreme Court ruled to uphold a colonial-era law that could punish homosexual acts with long-term imprisonment on December 11th, a decision that was criticized by many inside and outside of India.
More from GlobalPost: India reinstates gay sex ban
India's government sent a review petition to the Supreme Court requesting that it review the legal decision, calling the choice "unsustainable," according to the Times of India.
The petition claims that the Supreme Court ruling “suffers from errors apparent on the face of the record, and is contrary to well-established principles of law laid down by this court enunciating the width and ambit of Fundamental Rights under Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution," per Al Jazeera.
Union Minister for Communications & Information Technology Kapil Sibal Tweeted in favor of the petition today:
The court's decision earlier in the month overturned a 2009 Delhi High Court ruling that decriminalized gay sex, upholding instead a colonial-age law that deemed such acts an "unnatural offence," wrote the BBC.