New Delhi, March 21 -- The Delhi High Court on Friday expressed displeasure over the Centre's delay in taking a holistic view on the exclusion of penalties for "unnatural sex" and "sodomy" under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and bringing in required changes, despite its August 2024 order directing the government to take an expeditious decision in a reasonable time. A bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia noted that a decision till now was "no where in sight", and directed the Centre to file an affidavit detailing the steps it was taking to ensure compliance of August 2024 order. "The order was passed in August 2024 and we are in March 2026... A period of 1.5 years can reasonably be considered sufficient for deciding on the representation; however, the decision is nowhere in sight," it said. It added, "In view of the aforesaid, the writ petition is restored. Let an affidavit be filed by the respondent...within a period of four weeks." This came after the petitioner, Gantavya Gulati, said that pursuant to the court's direction, he had submitted a representation but the Centre despite multiple follow ups failed to take a call. On Friday, the Centre submitted that the issue was sensitive and could only be decided after gathering the views of the stakeholders concerned. It added that the decision-making process on the issue was ongoing. Gulati in his petition had asserted that the absence of a law penalising unnatural sex in the BNS creates a legal void, leaving vulnerable communities without adequate protection. He had urged the court to either restore the criminalisation of non-consensual sexual acts under a provision like Section 377 or adopt a gender-neutral interpretation of the laws dealing with rape. Section 377 of the IPC previously imposed life imprisonment or a ten-year sentence for engaging in "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman, or animal." However, in 2018, the Supreme Court, in the landmark case of Navtej Singh Johar Vs Union of India, decriminalised consensual same-sex relations, though the provision continued to criminalise non-consensual acts. He highlighted that the current draft of the BNS offered no remedy for a man sexually assaulted by another man, leaving victims without the ability to file a first information report (FIR)....