Adultery is no longer a crime: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously struck down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code that makes adultery a punishable offence for men. In four separate but concurring judgments, the five-judge bench of the Supreme Court said the 158-year-old law was unconstitutional and fell foul of Article 21 (Right to life and personal liberty) and Article 14 (Right to equality).

Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code punished a man who has an affair with a woman “without the consent or connivance of” her husband, with up to five years in jail. A petition said by exonerating wives of adultery if done with the consent of their husbands, it discriminates against women, and amounts to “institutionalized discrimination”.

“Adultery cannot and should not be a crime,” said outgoing Chief Justice Dipak Misra, who has delivered a slew of progressive decisions in his last few weeks in office -one of the busiest – before retiring on October 2. Three weeks ago, the Supreme Court scrapped a colonial-era ban on gay sex.