Before this recent judgement, a 158 year old law had it that, any man who has s3x with a married woman, without the permission of her husband, was guilty of the criminal act of adul.tery.
The law dictated that the woman could not be punished as an abettor. Instead, the man was considered to be a seducer. It also did not allow women to file a complaint against an adul.terous husband.
A man accused of adul.tery could be sent to a prison for a maximum of five years, made to pay a fine, or both, but the law has now been struck down by the supreme court.
How did the law of Adul.tery being a criminal offence get struck down in India?
Last August, Joseph Shine, a 41-year-old Indian businessman living in Italy, challenged the 158 year old law saying it was arbitrary and discriminated against men and women. He petitioned the Supreme Court to strike down the law.
His petition read;
Married women are not a special case for the purpose of prosecution for adul.tery. They are not in any way situated differently than men.
Mr Shine added that the law also “indirectly discriminates against women by holding an erroneous presumption that women are the property of men”.
However, India’s ruling BJP government had opposed the petition, insisting that adul.tery should remain a criminal offence.
The colonial-era law was struck down by the Supreme Court, making it the second colonial-era law to be struck down this month, the first being the law that criminalized gay s3x.
While reading out the judgement on adul.tery, Chief Justice Dipak Misra said that while it could be grounds for civil issues like divorce, “it cannot be a criminal offence”.
Park Your Loads And Start Coming To Our Country Now: Adul.tery No Longer A Punishable Offense In India
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