New Delhi: Union Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khursheed on Saturday asserted that there is no conflict of opinion in the government on the Delhi High Court order legalising gay sex.
"Ministers concerned have only met and tried to understand what the judgement has said. As far as I understand, there is no conflict (of opinion) or debate in the government on this issue," he told reporters in New Delhi.
His remarks have come a day after three senior ministers - Home Minister P Chidambaram, Law Minister M Veerappa Moily and Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad - met to take an in-depth view on the court order.
They were mandated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to decide the government's stand on the issue at a time when the High Court judgement had not come.
The Delhi High Court on Thursday legalised homosexual acts among consenting adults holding that the 149-year-old law making it a criminal offence violates fundamental rights.
Khursheed said there are many people in the society who might disagree with the decision but everybody's valid point of view should be respected.
The department of law has been asked to prepare a note based on the judgement so that the three ministers could look at it and decide on what is needed to be done.
The ministers are expected to submit their report to the Prime Minister.
Singh, during the first tenure of UPA, had asked the ministries of home and health to resolve the differences over the issue after the then Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss took divergent stand on the issue before the court.