Supreme Court scraps Adultery law |
The Supreme Court has scrapped adultery as a criminal offence, ruling that the 19-century law that “treats a husband as the master`, is unconstitutional. “The adultery law is arbitrary and it offends the dignity of a woman,” Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, who led the five-judge bench said.Adultery is the second offence to be decriminalised by the top court in 20 days. Early this month, the court had decriminalised gay sex between consenting adults. The penal code`s section 497 makes it an offence if a married man has sex with the wife of another married man without his “connivance” or “consent”. But only men, and not women, can be prosecuted under the adultery law. Adultery is the only provision in the penal code that treats men and women differently, for one, because it treats a married woman as the `property` of their husband. The judges said the section gives the husband licence “to use the woman as a chattel”. When such law falls foul of constitutional guarantee, then the court must strike it down even if the government does not act, the court ruled.
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