Adultery not a crime, Supreme Court strikes down Section 497 | 10 highlights
The court declared that Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code -- the adultery law -- was unconstitutional.
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IndiaToday.in
New Delhi
September 27, 2018UPDATED: September 27, 2018 16:58 IST
Adultery no longer a crime, Supreme Court strikes down Section 497
While adultery is no longer a crime, it will continue to be grounds for divorce.
HIGHLIGHTS
Adultery may not be cause of an unhappy marriage, but the result of one: CJI Misra
It's time to say the husband is not the master of the woman: Misra
Manifest arbitrariness is writ large in Section 497: DY Chandrachud
The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously struck down a 158-year-old law that considers adultery to be an offence committed by one man against another, and has been criticised for treating women as possessions rather than human beings.
The court declared that Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code -- the adultery law -- was unconstitutional (See factbox below). The section reads: "Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery."
Adultery is no longer a crime, but it will continue to be grounds for divorce.
Chief Justice Dipak Misra said adultery may not be the cause of an unhappy marriage, but the result of one.
Misra, who wrote a judgment for himself and Justice AM Khanwilkar, said the unequal treatment of women invites the wrath of the Constitution, and that any provision treating women unequally isn't constitutional.
HIGHLIGHTS | What the Supreme Court said about adultery
The other judges on the bench were Justice RF Nariman, Justice DY Chandrachud, and Justice Indu Malhotra.
Adultery law deprives women of dignity, has to go: Supreme Court in unanimous verdict
New Delhi | September 27, 2018
Batting for gender equality, the Supreme Court today struck down Indian Penal Code Section 497, which criminalised adultery. The Supreme Court said the law making adultery an offence was archaic, discriminated against women and a clear violation of the fundamental rights. Five judges of the Supreme Court were unanimous in ruling that the adultery law was unconstitutional and deserved to go.
Check Latest Updates
KEY UPDATES
12:02 IST
Supreme Court strikes down Section 497: Recap
11:18 IST
Justice DY Chandrachud concurs
11:09 IST
Adultery remains a ground for divorce
11:05 IST
Supreme Court strikes down adultery law
10:51 IST
2 judges of 5-judge bench strike down adultery law
10:47 IST
'Unequal treatment of women invites wrath of Constitution'
10:37 IST
Previous Supreme Court judgments on adultery
10:30 IST
No recourse for women
10:22 IST
Who heard the case?
10:18 IST
Woman an object?
10:08 IST
What is at stake today?
Adultery not a crime, says Supreme Court | Live Updates
12:04 PM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
We have ended our live coverage of the Supreme Court's verdict on the challenge to Section 497, which made adultery a criminal offence.
12:02 PM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Supreme Court strikes down Section 497: Recap
A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court today struck down Indian Penal Code Section 497. The bench, which included Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, held that Section 497 unconstitutional.
The judges held that Section 497 was an archaic law that violates of the right to equality and destroys and deprives women of dignity.
Unequal treatment of women invites the wrath of the Constitution
- CJI Misra for himself and J. Khanwilkar
Adultery might not be cause of unhappy marriage, it could be result of an unhappy marriage, the CJI Misra said in his judgment, which he wrote for himself and Justice AM Khanwilkar.
FULL REPORT | Adultery no longer a crime, Supreme Court strikes down Section 497
Justice DY Chandrachud said that autonomy is intrinsic in dignified human existence and Section 497 denudes women from making choices and held adultery as a relic of past.
Adultery is a relic of the past
- Justice DY Chandrachud
Section 497 of the 158-year-old IPC essentially made it a crime for a man to have sexual intercourse with the wife of another man without the other man's consent.
Adultery might not be cause of unhappy marriage, it could be result of an unhappy marriage
- CJI Misra for himself and J. Khanwilkar
The law gave no recourse to women -- a woman could not be the perpetrator or the victim of the crime of adultery, for example. It was seen as anti-woman, an observation that the Supreme Court today agreed with.
READ | Adultery verdict: Supreme Court overturns 3 past judgments
11:30 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
With today's verdict, the Supreme Court has overturned three of its own previous judgments. On three separate occasions in the past, the Supreme Court had held the law criminalising adultery as constitutionally valid. Today's ruling voids all those rulings.
READ MORE | Section 497: 3 past Supreme Court judgments on adultery law
ADVERTISEMENT
11:27 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
There is no justification for the continuation of Section 497 that makes adultery a criminal offence, Justice Indu Malhotra has said, concurring with all the four other judges on her bench.
11:21 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Breaking... the five-judge Supreme Court bench is unanimous in ruling that Section 497 of the IPC that makes adultery a criminal offence is unconstitutional.
11:18 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Justice DY Chandrachud concurs
Justice DY Chandrachud has held the adultery as a relic of the past and has struck down the law, concurring with three other judges. With this Justice DY Chandrachud has overturned his father Justice YV Chandrachud's 1985 ruling that held the adultery law to be a constitutionally valid.
Legislature has imposed a condition on sexuality of women by making adultery as offence
- Justice DY Chandrachud
11:12 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Section 497 offends sexual freedom of women, Justice Chandrachud is saying. He seems to be concurring with CJI Dipkak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Rohinton Nariman who have all held the law the makes adultery a criminal offence unconstitutional.
11:09 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Adultery remains a ground for divorce
While striking down the law that makes adultery a criminal offence, the Supreme Court has held that adultery will remain a ground for divorce.
11:07 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Section 497 destroys and deprives women of dignity, Justice DY Chandrachud, who is also on the bench, has said.
11:05 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Supreme Court strikes down adultery law
Justice Rohinton Nariman, who authored his own judgment, has concurred with CJI Dipak Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar. So now a majority opinion on the five-judge bench has held Section 497, which makes adultery a criminal offence, to be unconstitutional and violative of right to equality.
11:01 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Breaking... Section 497, which makes adultery a criminal offence, struck down by the Supreme Court
10:57 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Chief Justice Dipa Misra and Justice Khanwilkar have declared Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code as unconstitutional. However, we still are waiting for the judgments of the other three judges.
10:51 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
2 judges of 5-judge bench strike down adultery law
CJI Dipak Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar have struck the law that makes adultery an offence under Section 497 of IPC. However, these are just two judges on a five-judge bench. We still do not know what the verdicts of the other three judges are.
Section 497 of the IPC is manifestly arbitrary the way it deals with women
- CJI Misra for himself and J. Khanwilkar
10:47 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
'Unequal treatment of women invites wrath of Constitution'
Unequal treatment of women invites wrath of Constitution, CJI Misra continues. And, we also now know that CJI Dipak Misra has authored a judgment on behalf of himself and Justice AM Khanwilkar. That is two out of the five judges who are on the bench that heard the adultery case.
Women must be treated with equality with men. Any discrimination shall invite wrath of Constitution. A woman can't be asked to think the way society desires
- CJI Misra for himself and J. Khanwilkar
10:45 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Husband is not the master of the wife, CJI Misra says.
10:44 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
The magnificent beauty of the democracy is I, you and we, CJI Dipak Misra says as he reads his judgment on the plea challenging the adultery law.
10:42 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
CJI Misra has begun by talking about inequality. Any provision in a law that treats a woman with inequality is not Constitutional, the chief justice has said.
Bar & Bench
@barandbench
· Sep 27, 2018
Adultery: Bench Assembles, pronouncement of Judgment commences. #Section497 #SupremeCourt pic.twitter.com/qz0Dhh9lIH
View image on Twitter
Bar & Bench
@barandbench
#Adultery: Any provision treating woman with inequality is not Constitutional, CJI Dipak Misra. #Section497 #SupremeCourt
10:39 AM - Sep 27, 2018
34
28 people are talking about this
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10:40 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
The five-judge bench has assembled and has begun reading its verdict. CJI Dipak Misra is currently reading the judgment. But we don't know currently if this is his own opinion or if it is the bench's judgment.
10:37 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Previous Supreme Court judgments on adultery
The Supreme Court has heard matters related to the adultery law three times in the past. In 1954, the Supreme Court rejected a plea that contended that the adultery law violated the fundamental right of equality. In a case from 1985, the Supreme Court held that held that women need not be included as an aggrieved party under the adultery law. And, in a 1988 case, the Supreme Court observed that adultery law was a "shield rather than a sword".
READ MORE | Section 497: 3 past Supreme Court judgments on adultery law
10:30 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
No recourse for women
Under the adultery law, a woman has no recourse. For example, a woman whose husband has sexual intercourse with another woman cannot file a complaint against her husband because the law gives her no standing. Similarly, under the adultery law a woman cannot be punished for having sexual intercourse with a married man.
10:22 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Who heard the case?
The plea challenging the adultery law was heard by a five-judge special bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra. The other judges on the bench are Justices Rohinton Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra.
10:18 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Woman an object?
One of the examples used to argue that Section 497 is anti-women is that the law does not make it a crime for a man to have sexual intercourse with the wife of another man if he takes the consent of the other man.
10:08 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
What is at stake today?
The Supreme Court will today decide if adultery can remain a criminal offence in India. The Indian Penal Code Section 497 essentially says that it is a crime for a man to have sexual intercourse with the wife of another man without the consent of the other man. Simply put, under the current adultery law the perpetrator of the crime is a man and the victim is a man as well. And so, rights advocates have argued, the law is discriminatory and anti-women as it essentially considers a woman as an "object".
What is adultery law? How IPC Section 497 is anti-women
Prabhash K Dutta
New Delhi
September 19, 2018
UPDATED: September 19, 2018 10:10 IST
FOLLOW
EMAIL AUTHOR
READ LATER
HIGHLIGHTS
Chief Justice Dipak Misra has called the adultery law "anti-women"
Adultery law in India is defined by the Indian Penal Code Section 497
The law has been criticised for treating women as property owned by men
Picture for representation
Picture for representation
Adultery law in India is defined by the Indian Penal Code Section 497. The adultery law has come under the scanner of the judiciary several times in the past but the courts including the Supreme Court held Section 497 valid. But in the latest case, the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra called the adultery law "anti-women" while hearing a petition that challenged Section 497 for being anti-men and giving leverage to women.
The petition was filed by non-resident Keralite, Joseph Shine, who challenged the constitutionality of IPC Section 497 read with Section 198(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPc). The CrPc Section 182(2) deals with prosecution for offences against marriages.
IPC Section 497 states, "Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery."
The Supreme Court on August 2, said, "The law seems to be pro-women but is anti-women in a grave ostensible way. As if with the consent of the husband, wife can be subjected to someone else's desire. That's not Indian morality."
"Each partner of the marriage has equal responsibility. Why should the woman take more load than the man? That is the reason we call it archaic," the Supreme Court said.
The Supreme Court's observation followed an affidavit by the Centre, which said, "Adultery should remain an offence. Diluting adultery law will impact the sanctity of marriages. Making adultery legal will hurt marriage bonds."
Section 497 also states that a man found guilty of adultery "shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both."
In cases of adultery, the wife shall not be punishable as an abettor.
Similarly, an unmarried woman can not be prosecuted for adultery. The offence of adultery is, according to Section 497, committed by a man against a married man.
The adultery law has been criticised for treating women as property owned by men.
In the event of a man committing adultery by means of sexual intercourse with a married woman or an unmarried woman, this law does not confer any right on the man's wife o prosecute the adulterous husband or the woman with whom the husband has indulged in sexual intercourse with.
Simply put, only a man can be a victim or accused/culprit under the existing reading of Section 497 of the IPC.
But the Union home ministry defended Section 497 by referring to a judgment passed in 1985 Sowmithri Vishnu vs Union of India case. Quoting from the Supreme Court judgment, the home ministry said, It is better, from the point of view of the interests of the society, that at least a limited class of adulterous relationship is punishable by law. Stability of marriages is not an ideal to be scorned.
A three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by the then Chief Justice YV Chandrachud had upheld the constitutionality of Section 497 of the IPC.
The existing adultery law under Section 497 gets complicated further in the view of an Amendment Act of 1976. This was the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Act. It makes an act of adultery valid ground for divorce. Either spouse can seek divorce on the ground of adultery.
It states that even a single act of voluntary sexual act by either party to the marriage with any person other than his or her spouse constitutes a ground for divorce for the other spouse. But, Section 497 of the IPC doesn't recognise a woman as an aggrieved party in the case of adultery.
The court declared that Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code -- the adultery law -- was unconstitutional.
ADVERTISEMENT
IndiaToday.in
New Delhi
September 27, 2018UPDATED: September 27, 2018 16:58 IST
Adultery no longer a crime, Supreme Court strikes down Section 497
While adultery is no longer a crime, it will continue to be grounds for divorce.
HIGHLIGHTS
Adultery may not be cause of an unhappy marriage, but the result of one: CJI Misra
It's time to say the husband is not the master of the woman: Misra
Manifest arbitrariness is writ large in Section 497: DY Chandrachud
The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously struck down a 158-year-old law that considers adultery to be an offence committed by one man against another, and has been criticised for treating women as possessions rather than human beings.
The court declared that Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code -- the adultery law -- was unconstitutional (See factbox below). The section reads: "Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery."
Adultery is no longer a crime, but it will continue to be grounds for divorce.
Chief Justice Dipak Misra said adultery may not be the cause of an unhappy marriage, but the result of one.
Misra, who wrote a judgment for himself and Justice AM Khanwilkar, said the unequal treatment of women invites the wrath of the Constitution, and that any provision treating women unequally isn't constitutional.
HIGHLIGHTS | What the Supreme Court said about adultery
The other judges on the bench were Justice RF Nariman, Justice DY Chandrachud, and Justice Indu Malhotra.
Adultery law deprives women of dignity, has to go: Supreme Court in unanimous verdict
New Delhi | September 27, 2018
Batting for gender equality, the Supreme Court today struck down Indian Penal Code Section 497, which criminalised adultery. The Supreme Court said the law making adultery an offence was archaic, discriminated against women and a clear violation of the fundamental rights. Five judges of the Supreme Court were unanimous in ruling that the adultery law was unconstitutional and deserved to go.
Check Latest Updates
KEY UPDATES
12:02 IST
Supreme Court strikes down Section 497: Recap
11:18 IST
Justice DY Chandrachud concurs
11:09 IST
Adultery remains a ground for divorce
11:05 IST
Supreme Court strikes down adultery law
10:51 IST
2 judges of 5-judge bench strike down adultery law
10:47 IST
'Unequal treatment of women invites wrath of Constitution'
10:37 IST
Previous Supreme Court judgments on adultery
10:30 IST
No recourse for women
10:22 IST
Who heard the case?
10:18 IST
Woman an object?
10:08 IST
What is at stake today?
Adultery not a crime, says Supreme Court | Live Updates
12:04 PM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
We have ended our live coverage of the Supreme Court's verdict on the challenge to Section 497, which made adultery a criminal offence.
12:02 PM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Supreme Court strikes down Section 497: Recap
A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court today struck down Indian Penal Code Section 497. The bench, which included Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, held that Section 497 unconstitutional.
The judges held that Section 497 was an archaic law that violates of the right to equality and destroys and deprives women of dignity.
Unequal treatment of women invites the wrath of the Constitution
- CJI Misra for himself and J. Khanwilkar
Adultery might not be cause of unhappy marriage, it could be result of an unhappy marriage, the CJI Misra said in his judgment, which he wrote for himself and Justice AM Khanwilkar.
FULL REPORT | Adultery no longer a crime, Supreme Court strikes down Section 497
Justice DY Chandrachud said that autonomy is intrinsic in dignified human existence and Section 497 denudes women from making choices and held adultery as a relic of past.
Adultery is a relic of the past
- Justice DY Chandrachud
Section 497 of the 158-year-old IPC essentially made it a crime for a man to have sexual intercourse with the wife of another man without the other man's consent.
Adultery might not be cause of unhappy marriage, it could be result of an unhappy marriage
- CJI Misra for himself and J. Khanwilkar
The law gave no recourse to women -- a woman could not be the perpetrator or the victim of the crime of adultery, for example. It was seen as anti-woman, an observation that the Supreme Court today agreed with.
READ | Adultery verdict: Supreme Court overturns 3 past judgments
11:30 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
With today's verdict, the Supreme Court has overturned three of its own previous judgments. On three separate occasions in the past, the Supreme Court had held the law criminalising adultery as constitutionally valid. Today's ruling voids all those rulings.
READ MORE | Section 497: 3 past Supreme Court judgments on adultery law
ADVERTISEMENT
11:27 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
There is no justification for the continuation of Section 497 that makes adultery a criminal offence, Justice Indu Malhotra has said, concurring with all the four other judges on her bench.
11:21 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Breaking... the five-judge Supreme Court bench is unanimous in ruling that Section 497 of the IPC that makes adultery a criminal offence is unconstitutional.
11:18 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Justice DY Chandrachud concurs
Justice DY Chandrachud has held the adultery as a relic of the past and has struck down the law, concurring with three other judges. With this Justice DY Chandrachud has overturned his father Justice YV Chandrachud's 1985 ruling that held the adultery law to be a constitutionally valid.
Legislature has imposed a condition on sexuality of women by making adultery as offence
- Justice DY Chandrachud
11:12 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Section 497 offends sexual freedom of women, Justice Chandrachud is saying. He seems to be concurring with CJI Dipkak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Rohinton Nariman who have all held the law the makes adultery a criminal offence unconstitutional.
11:09 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Adultery remains a ground for divorce
While striking down the law that makes adultery a criminal offence, the Supreme Court has held that adultery will remain a ground for divorce.
11:07 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Section 497 destroys and deprives women of dignity, Justice DY Chandrachud, who is also on the bench, has said.
11:05 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Supreme Court strikes down adultery law
Justice Rohinton Nariman, who authored his own judgment, has concurred with CJI Dipak Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar. So now a majority opinion on the five-judge bench has held Section 497, which makes adultery a criminal offence, to be unconstitutional and violative of right to equality.
11:01 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Breaking... Section 497, which makes adultery a criminal offence, struck down by the Supreme Court
10:57 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Chief Justice Dipa Misra and Justice Khanwilkar have declared Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code as unconstitutional. However, we still are waiting for the judgments of the other three judges.
10:51 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
2 judges of 5-judge bench strike down adultery law
CJI Dipak Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar have struck the law that makes adultery an offence under Section 497 of IPC. However, these are just two judges on a five-judge bench. We still do not know what the verdicts of the other three judges are.
Section 497 of the IPC is manifestly arbitrary the way it deals with women
- CJI Misra for himself and J. Khanwilkar
10:47 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
'Unequal treatment of women invites wrath of Constitution'
Unequal treatment of women invites wrath of Constitution, CJI Misra continues. And, we also now know that CJI Dipak Misra has authored a judgment on behalf of himself and Justice AM Khanwilkar. That is two out of the five judges who are on the bench that heard the adultery case.
Women must be treated with equality with men. Any discrimination shall invite wrath of Constitution. A woman can't be asked to think the way society desires
- CJI Misra for himself and J. Khanwilkar
10:45 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Husband is not the master of the wife, CJI Misra says.
10:44 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
The magnificent beauty of the democracy is I, you and we, CJI Dipak Misra says as he reads his judgment on the plea challenging the adultery law.
10:42 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
CJI Misra has begun by talking about inequality. Any provision in a law that treats a woman with inequality is not Constitutional, the chief justice has said.
Bar & Bench
@barandbench
· Sep 27, 2018
Adultery: Bench Assembles, pronouncement of Judgment commences. #Section497 #SupremeCourt pic.twitter.com/qz0Dhh9lIH
View image on Twitter
Bar & Bench
@barandbench
#Adultery: Any provision treating woman with inequality is not Constitutional, CJI Dipak Misra. #Section497 #SupremeCourt
10:39 AM - Sep 27, 2018
34
28 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy
10:40 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
The five-judge bench has assembled and has begun reading its verdict. CJI Dipak Misra is currently reading the judgment. But we don't know currently if this is his own opinion or if it is the bench's judgment.
10:37 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Previous Supreme Court judgments on adultery
The Supreme Court has heard matters related to the adultery law three times in the past. In 1954, the Supreme Court rejected a plea that contended that the adultery law violated the fundamental right of equality. In a case from 1985, the Supreme Court held that held that women need not be included as an aggrieved party under the adultery law. And, in a 1988 case, the Supreme Court observed that adultery law was a "shield rather than a sword".
READ MORE | Section 497: 3 past Supreme Court judgments on adultery law
10:30 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
No recourse for women
Under the adultery law, a woman has no recourse. For example, a woman whose husband has sexual intercourse with another woman cannot file a complaint against her husband because the law gives her no standing. Similarly, under the adultery law a woman cannot be punished for having sexual intercourse with a married man.
10:22 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Who heard the case?
The plea challenging the adultery law was heard by a five-judge special bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra. The other judges on the bench are Justices Rohinton Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra.
10:18 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
Woman an object?
One of the examples used to argue that Section 497 is anti-women is that the law does not make it a crime for a man to have sexual intercourse with the wife of another man if he takes the consent of the other man.
10:08 AM IST Posted by Dev Goswami
What is at stake today?
The Supreme Court will today decide if adultery can remain a criminal offence in India. The Indian Penal Code Section 497 essentially says that it is a crime for a man to have sexual intercourse with the wife of another man without the consent of the other man. Simply put, under the current adultery law the perpetrator of the crime is a man and the victim is a man as well. And so, rights advocates have argued, the law is discriminatory and anti-women as it essentially considers a woman as an "object".
What is adultery law? How IPC Section 497 is anti-women
Prabhash K Dutta
New Delhi
September 19, 2018
UPDATED: September 19, 2018 10:10 IST
FOLLOW
EMAIL AUTHOR
READ LATER
HIGHLIGHTS
Chief Justice Dipak Misra has called the adultery law "anti-women"
Adultery law in India is defined by the Indian Penal Code Section 497
The law has been criticised for treating women as property owned by men
Picture for representation
Picture for representation
Adultery law in India is defined by the Indian Penal Code Section 497. The adultery law has come under the scanner of the judiciary several times in the past but the courts including the Supreme Court held Section 497 valid. But in the latest case, the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra called the adultery law "anti-women" while hearing a petition that challenged Section 497 for being anti-men and giving leverage to women.
The petition was filed by non-resident Keralite, Joseph Shine, who challenged the constitutionality of IPC Section 497 read with Section 198(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPc). The CrPc Section 182(2) deals with prosecution for offences against marriages.
IPC Section 497 states, "Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery."
The Supreme Court on August 2, said, "The law seems to be pro-women but is anti-women in a grave ostensible way. As if with the consent of the husband, wife can be subjected to someone else's desire. That's not Indian morality."
"Each partner of the marriage has equal responsibility. Why should the woman take more load than the man? That is the reason we call it archaic," the Supreme Court said.
The Supreme Court's observation followed an affidavit by the Centre, which said, "Adultery should remain an offence. Diluting adultery law will impact the sanctity of marriages. Making adultery legal will hurt marriage bonds."
Section 497 also states that a man found guilty of adultery "shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both."
In cases of adultery, the wife shall not be punishable as an abettor.
Similarly, an unmarried woman can not be prosecuted for adultery. The offence of adultery is, according to Section 497, committed by a man against a married man.
The adultery law has been criticised for treating women as property owned by men.
In the event of a man committing adultery by means of sexual intercourse with a married woman or an unmarried woman, this law does not confer any right on the man's wife o prosecute the adulterous husband or the woman with whom the husband has indulged in sexual intercourse with.
Simply put, only a man can be a victim or accused/culprit under the existing reading of Section 497 of the IPC.
But the Union home ministry defended Section 497 by referring to a judgment passed in 1985 Sowmithri Vishnu vs Union of India case. Quoting from the Supreme Court judgment, the home ministry said, It is better, from the point of view of the interests of the society, that at least a limited class of adulterous relationship is punishable by law. Stability of marriages is not an ideal to be scorned.
A three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by the then Chief Justice YV Chandrachud had upheld the constitutionality of Section 497 of the IPC.
The existing adultery law under Section 497 gets complicated further in the view of an Amendment Act of 1976. This was the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Act. It makes an act of adultery valid ground for divorce. Either spouse can seek divorce on the ground of adultery.
It states that even a single act of voluntary sexual act by either party to the marriage with any person other than his or her spouse constitutes a ground for divorce for the other spouse. But, Section 497 of the IPC doesn't recognise a woman as an aggrieved party in the case of adultery.
