Adultery — Section 497 IPC Struck Down · 27 September 2018
Joseph Shine v. Union of India: Supreme Court Strikes Down Adultery as a Criminal Offence
Supreme Court of India · AIR 2018 SC 4898
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A public interest petition was filed under Article 32 of the Constitution challenging the constitutional validity of Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised adultery, read with Section 198(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which governed who could prosecute such an offence. Under the provision as it stood, only a man could be prosecuted for adultery, and only the woman's husband could initiate the prosecution; the woman involved could not be prosecuted as an offender, nor could she file a complaint herself.
A five-judge Constitution Bench unanimously held Section 497 IPC and the connected CrPC provision unconstitutional, finding that the provisions violated Articles 14, 15(1) and 21 of the Constitution. The Court held that the law, in the manner it was framed, treated a married woman as subordinate to her husband rather than as an individual with equal agency, and infringed principles of personal autonomy, dignity and privacy recognised under the Constitution. Adultery ceased to be a criminal offence as a result of this judgment, though it continues to be available as a ground for civil divorce under personal and matrimonial laws.
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