Aman Nath, co-founder and chairman Neemrana Group of Hotels -- and one of the five individuals to petition the Supreme Court to de-criminalise homsexuality -- says it was not about him and he had done what was called for.


A fiercely private man, he told Rediff.com's Archana Masih: "It's about an outdated law being flushed out after 160 years by a government that people call conservative! And about 150 million or more Indian people too. India is just returning to its open, progressive morality. Finally, the love for mankind will be legal in India!"

The judgment came on a batch of writ petitions filed by dancer Navtej Jauhar, journalist Sunil Mehra, chef Ritu Dalmia, hoteliers Aman Nath and Keshav Suri and business executive Ayesha Kapur as well as 20 former and current students of the IITs.


With the Supreme Court decriminalising gay sex, India joins 125 other countries where homosexuality is legal. However, 72 countries and territories worldwide still continue to criminalise same-sex relationships, including 45 in which such relationships between women are outlawed.


In what is being hailed as a historic move, a five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously decriminalised part of the 158-year-old colonial law under Section 377 of the IPC which criminalises consensual unnatural sex, saying it violated the rights to equality.


The constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra termed the part of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises consensual unnatural sex as irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary.