February 05, 2019:
Recently, Justice Mridula Bhatkar of Bombay High Court has reiterated that consensual homosexual acts between adults, and adultery are no longer criminal offences in India, after the Supreme Court struck down Section 377 and Section 497 of IPC last September.
A petition was filed to quash a criminal charge under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) levelled against a man accused of having engaged in a homosexual adulterous relationship with the husband of the complainant.
After 4 to 5 years of their marriage in 1994, the complainant discovered that her husband was a gay. On being confronted, the complainant alleged that her husband ill-treated her due to which she left him and started living with her parents. She submitted that her husband carried on an affair with the petitioner, even after she returned. She also came to know about her husband's affair with several other men.
Thus, a criminal complaint was lodged by the complainant against the petitioner under various offences including Section 377 of IPC. At the time of lodging the complaint, i.e. in February 2009, Section 377 penalised homosexual activity, regardless of whether the same was consensual.
It was only in July 2009 that the Delhi High Court read down Section 377 to decriminalise consensual sexual activity for the first time in the Naz Foundation case. However, in an appeal against the Delhi High court verdict, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court overturned this judgment in 2013 to reinstate sexual intercourse between homosexual persons as a criminal offence in the Suresh Kumar Koushal case.
In September 2018, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in Navtej Singh Johar &Ors. vs. Union of India, ruled that the criminalisation of homosexuality was unconstitutional. It, therefore, read down Section 377 to decriminalise consensual homosexual sex. Weeks later, the Court also struck down Section 497, IPC which had criminalised adultery.
In the meanwhile, the petitioner in this case continued to remain an accused in the complaint lodged against him back in 2009. However, the retention of the charge under Section 377, even after the Supreme Court’s decriminalisation of homosexuality constrained the petitioner to approach the Bombay High Court to quash the same.
The High Court while allowing the Petition and discharging the Petitioner from the offence punishable under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code states that, the Supreme court in Navtej Singh Johar case held Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code criminalising consensual sexual conduct between the adult of same sex, as unconstitutional.
"In the present case, both were having an extra marital consensual sexual relationship. Though it may be a ground for divorce on the ground of cruelty to the complainant, it does not constitute offence under section 377 because both are adults and had sexual relationship by consent. In this case, there is no victim. The complainant wife is an aggrieved person but she cannot be called as a victim under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code....".
Read Judgment @ LatestLaws.com
Daniel Crasto Vs State of Maharashtra BHC-30.01.2019(Downloadable PDF)
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