SC refuses to make adultery law gender-neutral, will examine if it should be a crime at all

The Supreme Court has made it clear that it won’t touch the part of Section 497 of IPC that makes adultery an offence for a man who has an illicit relationship with someone’s wife.

New Delhi, August 1: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to make adultery a gender-neutral crime to also bring women under the purview of the law. A CJI Dipak Misra-led bench said that it will also examine if adultery should remain a crime at all.

The Supreme Court has made it clear that it won’t touch the part of Section 497 of IPC that makes adultery an offence for a man who has an illicit relationship with someone’s wife.

The court further said that it will examine if the IPC provision violates “right to equality” as the law excludes adulterous women from being prosecuted under the law.

In its argument, the Centre had stated last month that adultery should remain an offence as diluting the law would prove to be detrimental to the intrinsic Indian ethos and harm sanctity of marriages.

In December last year, the SC bench had issued a notice to the Centre on the validity of Section 497 of IPC and stated that the law appears to be prima facie “archaic” and doesn’t treat women as equal to men.

However, Centre in its affidavit argued that Section 497 was a relevant provision and cannot be done away with.

“It is submitted that striking down Section 497 of the IPC and Section 19 (2) of the CrPC would tantamount to decriminalizing the offence of adultery, thereby eroding the fabric of society at large,” the Centre had said.

Section 497 makes adultery an offence only with respect to a man who has a relationship with somebody’s wife. The wife is considered neither adulterous nor an abettor in law, while the man faces a jail term of up to five years.