India: Snapdeal has just been taken to court for selling vibrators

A Delhi lawyer has just taken e-commerce giant Snapdeal to court for selling sex accessories because he wants to test the limits of India’s anti-homosexuality law. Suhaas Joshi, an advocate at India’s Supreme Court, has filed a complaint for abetting gay sex and for exhibiting obscene products. 

Joshi’s complaint, explains that products—such as anal lubes and massagers that are shaped like the male phallus—violate the section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, along with other acts such as section 292, 292 A, 293 and 294 which prohibit obscenity in public. 

Section 377 is the controversial anti-gay Indian law that criminalises any intercourse that is “against the order of nature.” The Delhi high court had earlier decriminalised the act, but India’s Supreme Court subsequently overturned the decision and has left it to the Indian parliament to take a decision on repealing section 377. Read More