India's top court refuses to hear gay-sex ban challenge
Source: Reuters
World | Wed Jun 29, 2016 3:29am EDT
India's top court refuses to hear gay-sex ban challenge
India's Supreme Court refused on Wednesday to hear a petition challenging a law criminalizing gay sex, a setback for gay rights activists battling in the country's courts to get the ban overturned.
A number of well-known lesbian, gay and bisexual Indians had argued that Section 377 of India's penal code, which prohibits "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal", undermined their fundamental rights by failing to protect their sexual preferences.
"The Supreme Court refused to hear the matter and asked the petitioners to approach the Chief Justice of India," Arvind Dattar, a lawyer for one of the petitioners, told Reuters.
India's chief justice is already hearing a separate case to strike down the ban, and India's top court has previously argued that only parliament has the power to change Section 377.
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