New Delhi — India’s top court on Thursday decriminalised adultery in a landmark judgment aimed at upholding the right to equality and freedom, scrapping a law first brought in under British colonial rule in 1860. In a unanimous judgment, the five-member bench of the top court struck down a law that meant a man who had sex with a married woman without getting her husband’s permission could be charged and face up to five years in jail if convicted. "Adultery cannot and should not be a crime. It can be a ground for a civil offence, a ground for divorce," the chief justice of India, Dipak Misra, said while reading out the judgment. It is the second landmark judgment in the personal sphere in India this month. Three weeks ago, the Supreme Court scrapped a colonial-era ban on sex between gay people. Appearing for India’s Hindu nationalist government, additional solicitor-general Pinky Anand argued last month that adultery should remain a criminal offence to ensure the sanctity of marriage...
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