 "adultery, adultery law")
A parliamentary panel has asked the government to retain Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which relates to adultery, in the proposed Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. In 2018, the Supreme Court had decriminalised adultery. In its report on the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which seeks to replace the IPC, the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs noted that a Supreme Court Bench had struck down Section 497 of the IPC as it violated Articles 14, 15, and 21 of the Constitution. The SC Bench held that the law was archaic, arbitrary and paternalistic and infringed upon a woman’s autonomy, dignity and privacy. The provisions under this Section only penalised the married man and reduced the married woman to be her husband’s property, the SC order said.
However, in its report submitted to the Rajya Sabha on Friday, the panel said it was “of the view that the institution of marriage is considered sacred in Indian society, and there is a need to safeguard its sanctity.” It said: “For the sake of protecting the institution of marriage, this section should be retained in the Sanhita by making it gender-neutral.”
The committee asked the government to reintroduce and retain IPC Section 377 in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. It said the Sanhita’s draft currently had no provision for non-consensual sexual offence against male, female, transgender and for bestiality. It noted that a Supreme Court Bench in 2018 unanimously held that Section 377 of IPC violated Articles 14, 15, 19, and 21 of the Constitution of India. Still, its provisions remain applicable in cases of non-consensual carnal intercourse with adults, all acts of carnal intercourse with minors, and acts of bestiality. The committee said that Sanhita’s intent to move towards gender-neutral offences makes it “mandatory to reintroduce and retain Section 377 of the IPC.”
