Supreme Court: Adultery is no longer a crime in India, Supreme Court strikes down section 497.
Justice Rohinton Nariman, who authored his own judgment, has concurred with CJI Dipak Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar. So now a majority opinion on the five-judge bench has held Section 497, which makes adultery a criminal offense, to be unconstitutional and violative of the right to equality.
Justice DY Chandrachud said that autonomy is intrinsic in dignified human existence and Section 497 denudes women from making choice and held adultery as a relic of past.
A man having sexual intercourse with a married woman is not a crime.
Man being the seducer and women being the victim no longer exits. Women living under the shadow of husbands has gone.
Section 497 is a clear violation of fundamental rights granted in Constitution
