An affair is no one’s business, really. I might have it, I might not have it. I might regret it, it might wreck my marriage. My partner might have it and I may never forgive him for it. We both might try it and find we don’t love each other any more. We both might try it and find that we actually love each other the most. Either way, whichever way we do it, we have a lot to deal with. The should Is, shouldn’t Is, wish I’d gone for it, wish I hadn’t gone for it, are more than most married people can handle anyway. The verdict has not made any of this easier. What it has done though is not make it criminal.
Now I can check into that hotel room and have a sleazy fling without worrying about the law coming around with handcuffs sooner than I can ask housekeeping to change the sheets.
And it is not just hypothetically philandering me that is relieved. A committed same-sex couple until a few weeks ago couldn’t check in to a hotel for a night without the nagging fear that another archaic law might come knocking before the cheese omelette.
And last but not least like everyone who did not have an Aadhaar card while checking into a hotel, I will no longer have to feel like a criminal at the concierge, with welcome drink in hand and something shady to hide. When all I have to hide is how tattered my drag-on suitcase really is.
After the post verdict elation of Section 377, the partial joys of the Aadhaar verdict, and the palpable relief in the Section 497 verdict we can get on the with the messy business of our own private lives, which is none of your business.
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