‘Making adultery a criminal offence can interfere with sexual autonomy’

NEW DELHI: Adultery can be a ground for divorce under the civil law but is not a criminal offence, the Supreme Court noted Thursday. Justice DY Chandrachud batted for sexual autonomy of women in abused relationships and suggested there was nothing wrong if they “seek solace and comfort” outside of the marriage.

The judge is part of a constitution bench led by CJI Dipak Misra hearing a petition that wants to make Section 497 of the IPC gender-neutral. Currently, only a man can be punished for adultery. The section makes adultery a criminal offence if a married man has a sexual intercourse with the wife of another married man without the latter’s “connivance” or “consent.”

Making adultery a criminal offence is both irrational and unconstitutional, as it interferes with the sexual autonomy of an individual, besides penalising the man alone, the bench remarked.

The bench clarified that it was not in favour of making the offence gender neutral and would simply examine if the IPC section is constitutionally valid or not. For instance, one of the members on the bench pointed out that it seems to violate the Constitutional tenet of equality by being a law specific to men. The court noted that the adultery law, unlike the bigamy one (494 IPC) does not make the offence genderneutral. Under the bigamy law both men and women are liable for prosecution. Still, both man and woman have a sacred duty to protect the sanctity of marriage by not entering into an adulterous relationship, the CJI said.