Adultery decriminalised: What's Section 497 of IPC? Know about Victorian law that became history today
In a unanimous verdict, a 5-judge Supreme Court bench on Thursday decriminalised adultery in India. Making a strong case for gender equality, all judges including Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said that ‘husband is not the master of the wife.’
But what exactly was the Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code that became history today? Here’s what you should know.
“497. Adultery.—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, and shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both. In such case the wife shall not be punishable as an abettor.”
The government, in its petition in the Supreme Court had said that “striking down Section 497 of IPC and Section 198(2) of CrPc will prove to be detrimental to the intrinsic Indian ethos which gives paramount importance to the institution and sanctity of marriage.”
But on Thursday, the Supreme Court struck down the 150-year-old law. The CJI and Justice Khanwilkar said: "We declare Section 497 IPC and Section 198 of CrPC dealing with prosecution of offences against marriage as unconstitutional".
Justice Nariman termed Section 497 as archaic law and concurred with the CJI and Justice Khanwilkar, saying that the penal provision is violative of the rights to equality and equal opportunity to women.
Justice Chandrachud said Section 497 destroys and deprives women of dignity. Justice Indu Malhotra, the lone woman judge on the bench, said that Section 497 is clear violation of fundamental rights granted in the Constitution and there is no justification for continuation of the provision.
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