Adultery no longer a crime in India after top court rules that colonial-era law is unconstitutional

NEW DELHI - India's top court on Thursday (Sept 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.

from Asia
Read More