The controversial law on homosexuality goes back 149 years when Lord Macaulay, who chaired the First Law Commission, introduced the section while drafting the Indian Penal Code. 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.”

Introduced in 1860, Section 377 witnessed was amended in 1935 when the lawmakers to include oral sex. It had earlier been restricted to anal sex in 1884. Section 377 continues to be applicable to non-consensual and non-vaginal sex.

One of the earliest cases regarding the law dates back to the 1925 case of Khanu vs Emperor where it was laid down that, “the natural object of sexual intercourse is that there should be the possibility of conception of human beings”.

The law on homosexuality has always been a matter debate across the world. In Britain, from where India derived the law, King Edward VI went on to repeal the Buggery Act, an anti-sodomy law, a number of times in 1548 only for it to be reintroduced 15 years later. Denmark became the first country in 1989 to grant the same rights to same-sex partners as to married partners with Norway, Sweden and Iceland following suit . While homosexuality is illegal in most of Africa, post-apartheid South Africa enshrined gay rights in its Constitution.