Adultery law a must: Govt

Adultery must remain a crime so that the sanctity of marriage can be protected, the Centre argued before the Supreme Court on Wednesday after a petition called for the law to be scrapped as it does not treat men and women equally.

The archaic law punishes a man for an affair but there is no punishment for women. (Section 497 IPC punishes a man for having sexual intercourse with a woman who is the wife of someone else. It calls for imprisonment which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both. In such case the wife shall not be punishable as an abettor, the section reads.)

The petitioner argued that adultery should not be a crime even for men. The thrust of the argument is that when sexual intercourse takes place with the consent of both the parties, there is no good reason for excluding one party from the liability.

However, the Centre pushed for the petition to be dismissed and responded, "Don't decriminalise adultery, it will be detrimental to the intrinsic Indian ethos."

A five-judge constitution bench is expected to hear the case after settling the petitions challenging the ban on gay sex.

Earlier, the Supreme Court has upheld the law against adultery thrice. But last year the top court said the laws on adultery treat a woman as her husband's subordinate and time has come for society to realise that a woman is as equal to a man in every respect.