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As the Delhi High Court legalised gay sex among consenting adults in a path-breaking judgment on Thursday, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government reacted cautiously by stating that it will have to examine the judgment in detail before taking any decisions.
"We need to examine the details of the judgment. Let me examine it," Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily told reporters in New Delhi.
The controversial law on homosexuality goes back 149 years, when Lord Macaulay introduced the section in Indian Penal Code, punishing carnal intercourse, holding it was against nature.
Section 377 says, "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 a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine."