• Friday, March 29, 2024

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India’s top court rules adultery no longer a crime

The new judgement is also expected to reduce overcrowding in the courtrooms. (Photo: SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images).

By: Keerthi Mohan

India’s top court on Thursday (27) ruled that adultery is no longer a crime, declaring a colonial-era law that punished the offence with jail time unconstitutional and discriminatory against women. The more than century-old law prescribed that any man who slept with a married woman without her husband’s permission had committed adultery, a crime carrying a five-year prison term. “Thinking of adultery from a point of view of criminality is a retrograde step,” unanimously declared the five-judge bench of the supreme court. Women could not file a complaint under the archaic law nor be held liable for adultery themselves, making…

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