NEW DELHI: Wary of fiercely opposing views and a likely conservative backlash over Delhi High Court's ruling making gay sex legal, the government on Thursday decided to lob the ball into the Supreme Court by leaving it to the apex court to take a final view on the matter.

"The Cabinet decided to ask the Attorney General to assist the Supreme Court in every way desired by it in arriving at an opinion on the correctness of the judgment of the High Court," the information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. The government would not offer a view either in support or against the high court ruling.

At the Cabinet meeting, the view that was arrived at was that there was no need for the government to step into a crossfire over the gay ruling. Ministers like Salman Khursheed warned of a "negative" fallout if government were to seen supportive of the gay ruling. Apart from the minister for minority affairs and corporate affairs, home minister P Chidambaram also advocated the need for caution.

The cabinet considered the report prepared by a committee comprising three ministers which said that the Delhi HC ruling was not bad in law. The viewpoint of the government had been rejected by the high court which had read down a party of section 377 decriminalising gay sex. A recent note prepared by law secretary T K Vishwanathan had said that since the HC order had not totally struck down section 377, it would be difficult to challenge it in the apex court.

Rather than arguing that the ruling was correct in the SC, it was felt that the government could opt for a safer option of leaving the matter to the apex court itself.

Senior ministers including law minister M Veerappa Moily felt that this would be the way out. HRD minister Kapil Sibal argued the government was not really required to say whether it supported or opposed the ruling. The judgment had evoked strong reactions and there was no need to take on diametrically opposite points of view.

It was therefore decided that Attorney General G Vahanvati will "assist" the apex court. Soni told media that Supreme Court can decide if the High Court was "right or not" in decriminalising homosexuality.

A Christian organisation, a disciple of Yoga guru Ramdev and Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) have already approached the Supreme Court which sought the government's response by October 1.

The Supreme Court had earlier refused to stay the High Court order, saying it would await the response of the government.

In view of the sensitive nature of the issue, the government set up the GoM comprising home minister P Chidambaram, health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and law minister Veerappa Moily to formulate a view on it.

Moily treaded cautiously. "We are there to assist the court to arrive at a decision," he said when asked whether the government will challenge the High Court's judgment decriminalizing homosexuality.

When petitions seeking a stay on the High Court verdict had come before the SC, the Attorney General had not pressed for a suspension of the judgment.