Singapore has ruled out decriminalising gay sex after a Delhi High Court order legalising homosexuality, as both the nations share the same Penal Code inherited from the colonial British.
The city-state's Section 377A of its Penal Code states sex between men is a crime.
A recent ruling by the Delhi High Court legalising gay sex between consenting adults in India raised questions on whether Singapore might go the same way.
In a dialogue with local residents in Singapore, its Law Minister K Shanmugam said Section 377 would remain, as homosexuality was still not accepted by most Singaporeans.
"We have the law. We say it won't be enforced. Is it totally clear? We, sometimes in these things, have to accept a bit of messiness. And the way the society is going, we don't think it's fair for us to prosecute people who say that they are homosexual," Singapore media quoted Shanmugam as saying on Sunday.
But he said that while the government would not take the lead in repealing the law, the legal courts in Singapore had the power to decide how the law was interpreted and applied.