Centre moves SC on adultery

Plea says leave def. personnel out of judgment

The Centre on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court seeking to exclude armed forces personnel from the ambit of its 2018 judgment decriminalising adultery, who can be cashiered from service on the grounds of “unbecoming conduct” for committing adultery with a colleague’s wife.

A five-judge constitution bench had on September 27, 2018, in a landmark judgment, decriminalised adultery after striking down a British era law — Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code — terming it as unconstitutional, archaic and manifestly arbitrary, with Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman saying that women can’t be treated as “chattel”.

Issuing a notice on the Centre’s application seeking clarification, Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, heading a bench also comprising Justice Navin Sinha and Justice K.M. Joseph, said that since the clarification sought by the Centre is on a decision by a constitution bench it would be better it goes before a five-judge bench.

The three-judge Supreme Court bench directed the registry to place the matter before the Chief Justice Sharad A. Bobde for appropriate orders.

The Central government said that its judgment decriminalising adultery should not apply to armed forces where such acts amount to ‘unbecoming conduct’.

Under the Army, adultery is a ground for court-martial for unbecoming conduct.

By its 2018 judgment, the top court had said that Section 497 is a denial of the constitutional guarantees of dignity, liberty, privacy, and sexual autonomy, which are intrinsic to Article 21 of the Constitution.

“Mere adultery can’t be a criminal offence. It is a matter of privacy. Husband is not the master of a wife. Women should be treated with equality along with men,” then Chief Justice Dipak Misra had said in his judgment also speaking for Justice A.M.Khanwilkar.