The Supreme Court’s ruling on Thursday that adultery does not amount to mental cruelty per se runs the risk of treading a fine line between being seemingly progressive, and terribly detached from reality. The remarks were made as the two-judge bench acquitted a man convicted by the high court for abetting his wife’s suicide, allegedly due to his affair with a woman colleague. One wonders if in a country like India, the magnitude of social stigma attached to a woman whose husband left her for someone else can be ignored while defining cruelty. In a country that strives to be a global superpower but continues to be hopelessly male-dominated, a narrow definition of “cruelty against women” won’t help. But that’s wishful thinking, quite literally, considering there is one woman among 24 judges in the Supreme Court of India.

Source: Hindustan Times November 25, 2016 09:33 UTC