New Delhi  - A court in New Delhi on Thursday decriminalized gay sex between consenting adults by striking down a nearly 150-year-old law that made homosexuality a crime, media reports said.

In its landmark judgement, the Delhi High Court said if not amended, the law would violate the Indian constitution, which states that every citizen has equal opportunity of life and is equal under the law, the IANS news agency reported.

The provision, which dates back to pre-independence British India and was drafted in 1860, rules that homosexuality and "unnatural sex" are criminal acts punishable by prison terms of more than 10 years in prison and a fine.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S Murlidhar gave its verdict on the much-debated petition by gay rights activists.

The petitioners - who included the Naz Foundation, a gay advocacy group - pleaded that the criminal provision against homosexual behaviour should be scrapped for consenting adults and violated their fundamental rights.

The verdict is the first to be delivered by an Indian court on the 19th-century law.

Even as gay activists were jubilant over the "historic ruling," religious groups in the conservative South Asian country that regard same-sex relationships as blasphemous said they opposed the ruling.

Since the 1980s, courts in countries such as Britain, Australia, South Africa and the United States have issued verdicts against similar laws that made same-sex activity a crime. (dpa)