India Supreme Court Set To Address Sodomy Law For The Last Time

India’s Supreme Court has agreed to hear pleas against the controversial sodomy law that recently re-criminalized gay sex.

In July 2009, the Delhi High Court overturned a colonial-era ban on same-sex intercourse. Four years later, on Dec. 11, 2013, the country's Supreme Court reenacted Section 377 of India's Penal Code, which states, "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."

An appeal from outraged citizens against the ban was rejected in January, but now they are back for a second attempt to overturn the law.

Arvind Narrain, a Bangalore-based lawyer with the Alternative Law Forum who has been working on the case, explained the efforts to the Washington Blade.

"The curative petition is an opportunity for the court to apply a course correction and rethink a decision which has been universally condemned," he said.

Aside from the protesters who have taken to the streets to protest the ban, the socially conservative country is raising eyebrows in terms of what the government will allow. Just last week, India's Supreme Court issued a historic ruling that gave the option of a "third gender," providing full legal recognition to transgender individuals.

This is the LGBT community's final chance to overturn Section 377. The court is expected to release a date to hear the pleas next week.