Fridae

India's Supreme Court has refused to temporarily suspend a lower court's verdict legalising gay sex among consenting adults while it hears two petitions seeking to have the high court's decision overturned.

Homosexuality is a disease curable through yoga, says guru Baba Ramdev who has filed a Supreme Court appeal following the recent Delhi High Court judgment decriminalising sexual relationship between two consenting adults in private.

The Government "cannot move ahead of public opinion" and so law has to stay, says law minister K Shanmugam.

The Times of India – the world's largest-selling English broadsheet newspaper – and numerous other media outlets in the country hail the Delhi High Court's verdict which legalised sexual relations among gay men.

In a historic and eagerly anticipated judgment following an 8-year legal batte, the Delhi High Court on Thursday legalised gay sex among consenting adults by ruling in favour of a petition which sought a 'reading down' of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.

Vikram Doctor looks back at the struggles, considerations and strategies by the various NGOs involved with getting the petition written, filed and heard by the Delhi High Court after it was once thrown out on a technicality.

The Delhi High Court is due to deliver its much-awaited verdict on a petition seeking decriminalisation of same-sex relations at 10.30am IST (Indian Standard Time / GMT +5:30 hours).

More than half of the world's remaining "sodomy" laws - criminalising consensual homosexual conduct - are relics of British colonial rule. In 1860, British colonisers introduced a new criminal code including Section 377 to occupied India and other colonies.

The first of the six men who were charged last week has been sentenced to four months imprisonment.

In 72 hours, the Home Affairs and Health ministries will have to agree on one position and argue its case in court after warning that it will go ahead with its verdict should they fail to meet the deadline.