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India's top court has said it will re-examine its earlier decision upholding a colonial-era law that makes homosexual acts punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

India's chief justice Dipak Misra and two other judges said a larger group of judges would reconsider the law following a petition filed by five people who say they are living in fear of being prosecuted.

However, no date was fixed for court hearings in the case.

Gay activists said they are hopeful that the court would decriminalise gay sex.

In 2009, a New Delhi High Court declared Section 377 of the Indian law, which says intercourse between members of the same sex is against the order of nature, as unconstitutional.

However, the judgment was overturned by the Supreme Court four years later.