Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said the Supreme Court must review its decision upholding Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises sexual acts that homosexuals, among others, commonly engage in. Jaitley, who was speaking at an event, said that the apex court should not have reversed the order decriminalising consensual sex among gay adults. His views were also echoed by former Finance minister P Chidambaram, who was also present at the function. The Times of India reported that Jaitley said the Supreme Court’s views were not in sync with the jurisprudential development on gay rights across the world. “When millions of people world over are having alternative sexual preferences, it is too late in the day to propound a view that they should be jailed,” he said. He also criticised the move to scrap the National Judicial Appointments Commission.

The Delhi High Court in 2009 decriminalised Section 377 to prevent police harassment of homosexual adults having consensual sex. The move was challenged in the Supreme Court, which in 2013 said that Section 377 still held valid, constitutionally.

While speaking at the same event, Congress leader Chidambaram also said the decision by Rajiv Gandhi’s government to ban Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses was wrong. He was Minister of Home Affairs under Rajiv Gandhi from 1986 to 1989. ““I have no hesitation in saying that the ban on Salman Rushdie’s book was wrong,” he said.