India is seeing a lot of changes as of late. Not only have business started to cater towards LGBTQ people, but the law is now trying to reverse past injustices placed upon its citizens.
The Times of India recently reported on the first case of a citizen being acquitted for “gay sex” crimes.
A man, whose identity has been withheld, was initially charged for “unnatural offenses” after his wife filed a complaint to the police in 2009. Fast forward to this Wednesday, the Bombay High Court ruled that the man should not be held to the 377 charge.
“In the present case, both had an extra-marital consensual relationship,” said Judge Bhaktar.
“Though it may be a ground for divorce for cruelty to the wife, it does not constitute an offence under section 377 because both are adults and had sexual relations by consent.”
“The complainant is an aggrieved person but she cannot be called a victim under 377.”
Gay Star News reports that the wife first learned of her husband’s sexual exploits a few years after their marriage in 1994. She then tried to file several other complaints against her husband. Some include cruelty to wife by husband or his relative, and punishment for causing voluntary harm.
Eventually, her husband was charged for having gay sex. This “ gay sex crime” was charged in relation to the Section 377 rule in the Penal Code. The law was left over from British Colonial rule, but the Indian Supreme Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional last year.
Hopefully, there will be more men and women, like this anonymous man, who will have their charges dropped in the near future.
h/t: Times of India, Gay Star News
