 Image caption There has been outrage in India over the Supreme Court ruling 
 
 The Indian government is considering decriminalising homosexuality, a day after the country's top court upheld a law which criminalised gay sex. In a major blow to gay rights in the world's largest democracy, the Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out a 2009 ruling by a lower court that had decriminalized gay sex. GENEVA A decision by the Indian Supreme Court to reinstate a ban on gay sex represents a "significant step backwards for India" and violates international law, United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay said on Thursday, suggesting the case be reheard. "Criminalising private, consensual same-sex sexual conduct violates the rights to privacy and to non-discrimination enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which India has ratified," UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said in a statement issued in Geneva on Thursday. The statement added that the ruling was "a blow for human rights". The reinstatement of a 153-year-old law passed under British rule and based on 16th-century English legislation means "carnal intercourse" between consenting adults of the same sex is once more defined as "unnatural" and punishable by up to 10 years in jail. The 2009 decision of the high court in Delhi to repeal the law banning gay sex, known as section 377, was seen as a landmark in the campaign for equality in India. Several political, social and religious groups had petitioned the Supreme Court to have the law reinstated in the wake of the 2009 court ruling. Earlier, Mr Chidambaram told the NDTV news channel that he was "extremely disappointed" with the court ruling. The top court stated that only India's government could change the law, deeming the Delhi High Court had overstepped its powers with the decision four years ago.
– India's supreme court yesterday ruled to reinstate a colonial-era law that makes gay sex illegal and punishable by up to 10 years in jail—and few actually expected that outcome. Protesters gathered in Delhi last night, armed with rainbow flags and banners reading "I am gay, punish me," and "My love is not a crime," reports the Guardian. Fueling some of the outrage: surprise. Activists had anticipated that the court—known for its "broadly progressive judgments" that tend to favor the "poor and marginalized"—would simply approve the 2009 court ruling that repealed the more than century-old gay sex ban. And it's unclear whether the government will step in. Though the Guardian explains that the ruling party has only "limited political capital," which few think it'll spend on gay rights, Law Minister Kapil Sibal tells the BBC that "all options are being considered" to reinstate the 2009 ruling. And momentum is building, with UN human rights chief Navi Pillay today issuing a statement blasting yesterday's ruling as violating "the rights to privacy and to non-discrimination enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which India has ratified." The move "represents a significant step backwards for India and a blow for human rights," she said. What she'd like to see, per Reuters: the case reheard.