The Supreme Court struck down part of the British-era law that criminalised gay sex. Justice Nariman said section 377 was modelled on the Britain's Buggery Act of 1533 which was brought in by the then king Henry VIII which prohibited "the detestable and abominable offence" of buggery (anal intercourse) committed with mankind or beast."The Buggery Act, 1533, which was enacted by Henry VIII, made the offence of buggery punishable by death, and continued to exist for nearly 300 years before it was repealed and replaced by the Offences against the Person Act, 1828. Buggery, however, remained a capital offence in England until 1861, one year after the enactment of the Indian Penal Code," Justice Chandrachud said.The Buggery Act of 1533 (25 Hen. VIII c. 6) was a sodomy law adopted in England in 1534 during the reign of Henry VIII, and was the first civil legislation applicable against homosexuals in the country, such offences having previously been dealt with by ecclesiastical courts. The law defined buggery as an unnatural sexual act against the will of God and manIn 2009, the Delhi High Court passed a landmark judgment holding Section 377 to be violative of Articles 21, 14 and 15 of the Constitution, insofar as it criminalised consensual sexual acts of adults in private.On 11 December 2013, Supreme Court (in a verdict pronounced by Justice G.S. Singhvi who retired on the same day) overturned the Delhi HC verdict that decriminalised consensual sex among adult homosexual men. But the SC also advised the government that it was free to annul the law through legislation.