It might have been a wishful thinking for some people to be able to say this, especially for those who have been…well, in a more complicated position than just a love affair. Yes, the hints are at extramarital affairs or as the Victorians loved to call it, “adultery”. Now, apart from the moral obligations, what plagued people in this kind of a relationship so far in India was the Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalized the sexual relationship of a man with a woman married to someone else, without the consent of the husband. On last Thursday, a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court unanimously ruled to scrap this law, causing adultery to be left out of the list of criminal offense.
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When discussing an issue as complex as this one, it is quite impossible to pick a side with utmost certainty because both the goods and the perils of such a decision are bound to have a huge impact on a society as large and varied as that of India. However, there is no room for doubt for all the arguments offered in favor of this judgment by both the jury and other eminent personalities closely associated with law and order.
First of all, adultery indeed breaks the foundation of a civil code, i.e. marriage but considering it an offense punishable by law is indeed another instance of the court regulating the individual citizen’s bedroom. It is a completely personal and individual choice of how one would deal with adultery in their nuptial bond – both forgiveness or an appeal for divorce should be choices left at the consideration of the individual involved in the situation. Apart from the concern of privacy, this law also carries the archaic notion of the wife being the property of the husband, for adultery is not a crime when the husband consents to his wife’s extramarital affair.
Decriminalising of #Adultery is welcome and long overdue. Adultery is now grounds for divorce not crime. The law criminalising men for relations with some other man’s wife was patriarchal, assumes wife is husband’s property and has no autonomy. Good riddance #AdulteryVerdict
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) September 27, 2018
In a tweet, Kavita Krishnan, secretary of All India Women’s Association and a CPI(ML) Polit Bureau member said “Decriminalising of #Adultery is welcome and long overdue. Adultery is now grounds for divorce not crime. The law criminalising men for relations with some other man’s wife was patriarchal, assumes wife is husband’s property and has no autonomy. Good riddance #AdulteryVerdict”.
Would suggest seek divorce first and then find your true love. Why be in an adulterous relationship? Why cheat on another human being? Imagine plight of a wife whose husband finds love outside marriage. U wish to understand the pain -visit DCW. Every second woman is facing this. https://t.co/owCp9FjHWG
— Swati Maliwal (@SwatiJaiHind) September 27, 2018
Coming to the other side of the argument, some individuals are losing their sleep fretting what moral degradation this verdict might bring to the society. But the bitter truth is, criminalizing a moral offense has never really stopped someone from committing the deed. The fear of law and order can regulate a person only to a certain extent and no clause of the constitution can actually bound two married individuals to stay loyal to each other if they do not intend to.
In the context of Indian society, this verdict is surely a progressive step, perhaps a bit too progressive given the resultant pace at which the country is changing its outlook towards moral and sexual freedom. Indians love marriage relationships and dread the name of divorce. But in reality, there is no actual data to substantiate that repealing this law will increase the rate of divorce or whip up a chaos in sexual morality. Sexual relationship between two consenting adults should not be a matter for the state to intervene in. The fact that the Indian Supreme Court acknowledged and acted upon this critical understanding is obviously a welcome move.
