SC reserves verdict on PIL seeking scrapping of Section 497, questions govt's stand on adultery laws

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved the verdict on a PIL seeking the scrapping of Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which makes adultery a criminal offence. The top court questioned the government's stand defending the adultery law that punishes the married men while absolving the married women who are involved in relationships outside marriage.

As the government defended the retention of Section 497 of the IPC for preserving the "sanctity of marriage", a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked how it preserved the "sanctity" when with the extra-marital affair becomes non-punishable if the woman`s husband stands by her.

Other judges on the bench are Justice Rohinton Nariman, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Indu Malhotra. 

"Where is the sanctity of marriage when the husband can consent," asked Justice Nariman. The Chief Justice said, "We are not questioning the legislature`s competence to make laws but where is the 'collective good' in Section 497 of IPC."

Last week, the CJI, while hearing a petition seeking to make men and women equally liable for adultery under Section 497 of the IPC, had observed that both the parties have to be equally responsible for their act.

The SC had on August 1 said that it will not touch the law to make it an offence for women too. "We will test whether Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on the basis of Article 14 (equality before law) should remain a criminal offence at all," the bench also comprising justices RF Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, had said.

The apex court has been hearing a clutch of pleas seeking quashing of the adultery provision in the IPC on the ground that it only punishes married men for having extra-marital sexual relations with a married woman.

Section 497 of the 158-year-old IPC says: "Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery." 

"He shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term 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 says.

(With inputs from agencies)