NEW DELHI: Supporting the rights of women, Justice D Y Chandrachud was part of the Bench that scrapped the colonial-era law criminalising adultery, holding as unconstitutional the provision that robbed women of sexual autonomy and treated them as chattel and a property of their husbands.
By striking down Section 497, Justice Chandrachud overruled his father and former Chief Justice of India Y V Chandrachud’s ruling.
This is not the first time he has differed from his father’s view. In last year’s ruling on the right to privacy, Justice D Y Chandrachud had overruled his father. In a landmark judgment in 1976, a five-judge bench that included Justice Y V Chandrachud dismissed the argument that privacy constituted a fundamental right under the right to life.
Forty-one years later, Justice D Y Chandrachud wrote, “The judgments rendered by all the four judges constituting the majority in ADM Jabalpur are seriously flawed.”
Similarly, in 1985, then CJI Y V Chandrachud, along with Justices R S Pathak and A N Sen, held Section 497 valid. He wrote, “It is commonly accepted that it is the man who is the seducer and not the woman. This position may have undergone some change over the years, but it is for the legislature to consider whether Section 497 should be amended appropriately so as to take note of the transformation which society has undergone.”
Thirty-three years later, his son Justice D Y Chandrachud said, “We must make our judgments relevant to the present day. The law on adultery is a codified rule of patriarchy. Respect for sexual autonomy must be emphasized. Marriage does not preserve ceiling of autonomy. Section 497 perpetrates subordinate nature of woman in a marriage.”
In his 77-page verdict, he said, “To be human involves the ability to fulfil sexual desires in the pursuit of happiness. Autonomy in matters of sexuality is thus intrinsic to a dignified human existence.”