New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday struck down the 158-year-old colonial-era Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised adultery, as unconstitutional, saying it violated a woman’s right to dignity, which resulted in infringement of Article 21. Since the provision was struck down by a five-judge Constitution Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Rohinton Nariman, A.M. Khanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, adultery is no longer a criminal offence in India, in which only the man and not the woman was punished. While the CJI delivered the main judgement, Justices Nariman, Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra gave concurring verdicts.
Section 497 IPC, a Victorian era provision, mandates that “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”.
The CJI, writing the main judgement for himself and Justice Khanwilkar, said: “Any provision of law affecting individual dignity and equality of women invites the wrath of the Constitution. It is manifestly arbitrary and it is time to say that a husband is not the master of his wife. Legal sovereignty of one sex over the other sex is wrong.” He said adultery can be a ground for civil case, a ground for divorce but not criminal offence.
