Adultery is not a crime, Section 497 of IPC unconstitutional: SC

Mere adultery can't be a crime unless it attracts the scope of Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC, the Supreme Court said on Thursday.

"Adultery can be ground for civil issues including dissolution of marriage but it cannot be a criminal offence," the apex court said.

On the petition challenging the validity of Section 497 (Adultery) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), CJI Dipak Misra said, "The magnificent beauty of the democracy is I, you and we. Equality is the governing principle of a system. Husband is not the master of the wife. Women must be treated with equality. Any discrimination shall invite the wrath of Constitution. Section 497 IPC which deals with Adultery is absolutely manifestly arbitrary." 

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." 

On January 5, the apex court had referred to a five-judge constitution bench the plea challenging the validity of the penal law on adultery.

The court had taken a prima facie view that though the criminal law proceeded on "gender neutrality", the concept was absent in Section 497.

What the Judges said:

Justice D Y Chandrachud says Section 497 destroys and deprives women of dignity

Justice R F Nariman terms Section 497 dealing with adultery as archaic law

We declare Sect 497 IPC and Sec 198 CrPC dealing with prosecution of offences against marriage as unconstitutional: CJI & Justice Khanwilkar

Nariman concurs with CJI, Justice Khanwilkar and says Section 497 is violative of right to equality and right to equal opportunity to women

Adultery might not be cause of unhappy marriage, it could be result of an unhappy marriage: CJI

Law deprives married women the agency of consent: Justice D Y Chandrachud

A woman loses her voice, autonomy after entering marriage and manifest arbitrariness is writ large in Section 497: Justice Chandrachud

Section 497 offends sexual freedom of women: Justice Chandrachud