India’s gay community, rights activists and religious groups have been awaiting this judgment since March 2012, when arguments in an appeal against a 2009 Delhi High Court ruling legalizing homosexuality came to a close.

 

The High Court said that a 19th-century provision of the penal code that prohibits people from engaging in “carnal acts against the order of nature” should not apply to consenting adults, including same-sex couples.

 

But religious groups challenged the ruling, saying homosexuality is a Western import that hurts Indian society and family values.

 

On Wednesday, Supreme Court judges overturned the lower court's decision, recriminalizing homosexual sex.