NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has declared that Section 497 is unconstitutional. Adultery is not a crime. This judgment has overturned the three previous rulings by the Supreme Court on Section 497.
A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court today struck down the 150-year-old penal law on adultery.The top court held that the act adultery can be a ground for divorce, but not a criminal offence.
In August, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and comprising Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra had reserved its verdict on the matter.
Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman also concurred with the CJI and Khanwilkar’s judgment and termed the archaic law as unconstitutional.
Justice Chandrachud said Section 497 destroys and deprives women of dignity.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 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.
Under Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Adultery was an offence and a convict could be sentenced to five-year-jail term. Section 497 deprives women of dignity and that women are treated as property of her husband.
Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, 1960, that governs adultery, was also found to be “arbitrary and violative of Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution”.
The Supreme Court also rejected the argument that unmarried women should be brought under the purview of the adultery law.
The CJI stated before the apex court that adultery as an act is not criminal in China, Japan and in many other western countries and remarked that it “dents the individuality of a woman”.
