CNN-IBN

New Delhi, Jul 20: Gay rights movement in India could get a big leap forward if the National Aids Control Organisation – the principal governing body for AIDS (established under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) – gets its way.

NACO has filed an affidavit in Delhi High Court supporting the call to scrap Section 377 of Indian Penal Code, which declares homosexuality an offence, a leading English daily reported.

Naco's affidavit was a reply to a Public Interest Litigation filed by NAZ Foundation, an NGO. The PIL was rejected by the court, on the grounds that homosexuality was unacceptable in Indian society.

Later, NAZ filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court, which asked the Delhi High Court to reconsider the matter.

NACO, in its petition, quotes a survey that found 8 per cent of the 25-lakh homosexual population in India to be afflicted with HIV/AIDS.

This was as compared to one per cent of the general population affected by the disease, hence contending that homosexuals were highly vulnerable to the disease.