New Delhi:The Centre s reliance on material lifted from Wikipedia and other websites to substantiate its stand to curb gay sex invited the wrath of the Delhi High Court which pulled it up for using "racist reports" without knowing their credentials.

"Who are these people. You must show us what is their status. How can we take into consideration without knowing their credentials," the Bench headed by the Chief Justice A P Shah said while objecting to the government s reference to articles, supporting ban on gay sex, downloaded from internet without checking the writers credentials.

"Everything on internet cannot be taken into consideration," the court said while pulling up the government for quoting a "racist article" projecting Black Americans in a bad light.

The Government, while reading out the article, said that in America Blacks are more responsible than Whites for spreading the disease of AIDS.

"The government should not have cited that article. It is pertaining to hatred campaign against the Blacks. Don t rely on such articles. It is a campaign against minority," the Court said.

"Does Union Of India want to show us or rely on the statistics which say that the Blacks are more responsible for the spread of the disease. The whole so-called research is based on racism. How can a secular and democratic country rely or support these kinds of arguments," the court asked.

The gay-rights activists, who are seeking court s direction to decriminalise gay sex, also objected to the Centre s move to rely upon articles and materials which were not recognised by any government in the world.

"These articles, put forward by the government, have been taken from Wikipedia which is not recognised by any government in the world," the petitioners said, while opposing the Government s move.
Source : PTI