India’s 150-year-old adultery law is “arbitrary”, the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said Thursday as the Supreme Court began delivering its verdict on the law that treats women as the victim and not as an abettor of the offence. Under Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, it is an offence if a married man has sex with the wife of another married man without his “connivance” or “consent”. But only men, and not women, can be prosecuted under the adultery law. Adultery might not be the cause of an unhappy marriage, it could be the result of an unhappy marriage, said CJI Dipak Misra. Adultery law is an archaic law, manifestly arbitrary, and offends the dignity of women.

Source: Hindustan Times September 27, 2018 06:04 UTC