Home Ministry denies taking any stand on homosexuality

New Delhi -  The Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday denied taking any stand on homosexuality after certain sections of the media reported that the ministry in its reply to Supreme Court  had said that ‘homosexuality is highly immoral and against the social order’.

The ministry in a press note today said that after the judgment of the Delhi High Court decriminalizing homosexuality, the matter was considered by the Cabinet, which decided not file an  appeal against the judgment to the Supreme Court.

However, if any other party to the case prefers an appeal, the Attorney General may be requested to assist the Supreme Court to examine the matter and to decide the legal questions involved.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had conveyed this decision to the Attorney General.

It further said that the ministry did not given any instruction apart from conveying the decision of the Cabinet.

The row erupted after some news channels reported that Home Ministry in reply to a Supreme Court observation of February 16 on homosexuality had said it was opposed to the  decriminalisation of gay sex.

A two-judge bench comprising of Justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya, was then hearing a bunch of appeals filed against decriminalisation of gay sex.

Both judges had opined that homosexuality should be seen in the light of changing times where phenomena of live-in relationship, single parents and artificial fertilisation have become  normal.

They had also pointed out that many things, which were considered immoral twenty years back, have become acceptable to society now.

The bench said that gay sex was not an offence prior to 1860 and referred to paintings and sculptures of Khajuraho.