New Delhi, Dec 9: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to re-examine the 157-year-old adultery law in Indian Penal Code (IPC) holding only married men as offenders for consensual sexual and the married women as victims. “Woman can’t be treated differently for the purpose of a criminal offence when in every other offence there is no gender bias,” the apex court said.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud was hearing a plea filed by Joseph Shine from Kerala on why only a married man should be an offender and not a married woman for consensual sex. “Time has come when the society must realise that a woman is equal to a man in every respect,” the bench said in a statement.
The top court said there doesn’t appear to be any reason to treat women differently and make an exception for women when “they are treated equally to men in all walks of life”. The apex court also admitted a petition to drop adultery as a criminal offence. “It appears to be an archaic provision. When society progresses new generation of thoughts spring,” it said.
A “consensual” sexual intercourse between a man and a married woman is outlawed in the IPC. However, only a married man is prosecuted on the husband’s complaint, not the wife. The offence for engaging in adultery is punished with five years jail.
