The Delhi High Court has asked the Indian government to provide research that proves penalizing men who have sex with men (MSM) lowers the rate of HIV infections, expressindia.com reports. The government is making the case that MSM spread diseases and that current laws against them should remain on the books.

“If your argument is correct, then the spread of HIV should have stopped in the country as the law has been there for many years,” the court said. “But it is not the case as many people are dying of the dreaded disease.”

Gay rights activists want to amend Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code under which homosexual sex can be punished with life imprisonment.

Additional Solicitor General P P Malhotra argued with the Delhi High Court that the laws were necessary: “Right to health of few persons cannot supersede right to health of society. There has to be balance between them, and it is for this purpose that Section 377 is there.”