India's LGBT community celebrates a small victory

Supreme Court orders re-examination of colonial-era law that criminalises homosexuals and other sexual minorities.

Efforts to repeal the law began in 1991 but it remains in place 25 years later [AP]

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Bhanu Bhatnagar

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India's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community is celebrating after the country's Supreme Court decided to continue debating the legality of a law that effectively criminalises homosexuals and other sexual minorities.
It's not the decision that anxious activists were expecting.
Most believed that the court would throw the question of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) back to the parliament, as it did in December 2013.
Back then judges said it wasn't for the courts but for the elected parliamentarians to change the laws.

This law has to go because it's colonial baggage that has outlived its relevance Dhrubo Jyoti, Activist

Just months before a general election, no political party was willing to champion LGBT rights for fear of alienating mainstream voters.
Section 377 of the IPC dates back to 1860 when India was a British colony.
It has been used as an excuse to discriminate, harass, assault, attack or rape sexual minorities, denying them their rights as individuals and citizens.
Outside the court, activist Dhrubo Jyoti told Al Jazeera: "We really think, if it's not today, if it's five years from now, if it's seven years from now, this law has to go, and this law has to go because it's colonial baggage that has outlived its relevance."
IPC Section 377 states that "whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for term which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to fine".
While the text of the law does not explicitly mention homosexuality, it has commonly been used as a weapon against sexual minorities in India, as a way to threaten and subjugate.