NEW DELHI — In a groundbreaking victory for gay rights, India’s Supreme Court on Thursday struck down one of the world’s oldest laws criminalizing consensual gay sex, putting to rest a legal battle that stretched for many years and burying one of the most glaring vestiges of India’s colonial past. Petitioners before the Supreme Court argued that the controversial law was not in tandem with a 2017 ruling that guaranteed the right to privacy to people.
The Supreme Court of India strikes down Article 377, a colonial-era law which criminalized homosexuality, declaring it unconstitutional.