Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has once again come out in support of decriminalisation of homosexuality and said that the “judgement on gay sex should be reconsidered” by the Supreme Court, according to a IANS report.

Speaking at Times LitFest in New Delhi, Mr. Jaitley said, “Supreme Court’s 2014 verdict banning gay sex is not in accordance with evolving legal jurisprudence and court needs to reconsider it.”

“Courts in India have always defended the right to free speech, guaranteed under the Article 19 of Indian Constitution. We can compete with European courts in this,”he said.

Before the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 Mr. Jaitley, during an interaction with students of the Delhi Shri Ram College of Commerce on an NDTV show, had said he agreed more with the Delhi High Court verdict of 2009 and considered the Supreme Court verdict wrong.

Sukhdeep Singh