Adultery no more a crime; husband is not the master of his wife: Supreme Court

News Network
September 27, 2018

New Delhi, Sept 27: In a historic judgement, the Supreme Court of India on Thursday struck down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code that made adultery a criminal offence.

A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra was unanimous in its judgement that held Section 497 as unconstitutional. While holding that adultery is manifestly arbitrary, the court said the act can be a ground for divorce and a person will have civil remedies for it.

The CJI and Justice Khanwilkar said, "We declare Section 497 IPC and Section 198 of CrPC dealing with the prosecution of offences against marriage as unconstitutional".

Reading out his part of the judgement, CJI Misra, who retires early next month, said mere adultery cannot be a crime, unless it attracts the scope of Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.

Adultery law verdict - Highlights

“Equality is the governing principle of a system. Husband is not the master of the wife,” the CJI said, adding “the magnificent beauty of the democracy is I, you and we”.

The Chief Justice noted that an unhappy marriage might not be a result of adultery but vice versa. He pointed out that adultery is not a criminal offence in countries like China, Japan and Australia.

Justice Indu Malhotra described Section 497 as “a clear violation of fundamental rights granted in the Constitution”. There is no justification for the continuation of Section 497 of IPC, she concurred.

Justice Chandrachud, on his part, said Section 497 is denial of substance of equality as it imposes “a condition on the sexuality of women by making adultery as an offence.” He held the law as a “relic of the past”.

Justice RF Nariman, meanwhile, termed Section 497 dealing with adultery as an archaic law. He concurred with the CJI and Justice Khanwilkar, describing the penal provision under the law as violative of the rights to equality and equal opportunity to women.

Section 497 of the IPC read: "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, and 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."

Comments

sam
 - 
Thursday, 27 Sep 2018

Ohhh....whats going on in india under name of democracy....

Ramprasad
 - 
Thursday, 27 Sep 2018

Strange. SC promoting adultery

Unknown
 - 
Thursday, 27 Sep 2018

Soon rape will be legalised.. 

Kumar
 - 
Thursday, 27 Sep 2018

No need of marriages and SC should legalise pornography. Should start pornography industry (just like other film industry) in India like US. 

Danish
 - 
Thursday, 27 Sep 2018

Rubbish. What is the point in marriage

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News Network
June 23,2020

Bengaluru, June 23: Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar has urged his party colleagues to be active on social media to counter the propaganda of Bharatiya Janata Party.

Speaking to media persons, the KPCC president said that no more than 20 out of the 68 Congress MLAs are active on social media.

“All those MLAs who are doing well need to be projected. We want leaders, not mere followers. They all should be the face of Congress in Karnataka. Party should not depend on just my face or Siddaramaiah’s,” he said.

Shivakumar’s diktat has resulted in the party’s social media unit scrambling to get leaders to create their accounts.

“We’re pressuring all the party MLAs and leaders. We’re asking their personal assistants or gunmen to operate their accounts if they are not savvy with social media,” KPCC social media chief A N Nataraj Gowda said.

He pointed out that the 20 MLAs who are active on social media include U T Khader, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Priyank Kharge, Krishna Byre Gowda among others.

“We’re also trying to get the accounts verified of those who are beginning to get active. For example, it was only recently that we got the accounts of S R Patil and Vijay Singh verified,” Gowda said.

Tapping the full potential of social media is crucial for the Congress because the BJP has found much success in reaching out to voters through various online platforms.

In fact, ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections, the Congress found that there were 10 ministers and some 40 MLAs who had turned a blind eye towards social media.

Shivakumar said he was also working on putting in place a system in the party under which all developments related to the state and country will be communicated to all party leaders at 10 am every day.

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News Network
April 23,2020

Mangaluru, Apr 23: The scarcity of water in Kukkavu area of Belthangady town in Dakshina Kannada district has forced school-going children to dig a well with their hands.
The children studying in primary schools were seen lifting the heavy buckets of water from the well.

The residents were facing the water shortage from the past couple of days, amid the coronavirus lockdown.
A group of five adolescents managed to dug the well as deep as 12 feet within just a span of four days.

" We are facing water problem now. With the support of my five more friends, we dug this well. At the beginning we just found soil, then in the deeper layers, we also found stones. We got access to the water at 10 feet down," said Dhanush, a class 9th student, while speaking to news agency.

The shortage of water during the summer months is a perennial problem in across several states in India, and the growing population has only added to the woes.

In extreme conditions, poor have to draw water from small water holes.

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News Network
April 7,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 7: With reporting of 12 positive cases of COVID-19 since last evening, including three women, the total number of confirmed cases in Karnataka increased to 175, including four deaths.

According to official sources, while three fresh cases of COVID-19 were reported from Bengaluru, two each had been reported from Bagalkot, Kalaburagi and Mandya, followed by one each at Gadag and Bengaluru Rural districts.

After a gap of over three weeks, two more fresh cases had been reported from Kalaburagi, which had reported the first death of the country.

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