Indian court strikes out century-old adultery law
Adultery will no longer be a criminal offence in India, the country’s Supreme court has ruled.
Previously, offenders had been subjected to five-year jail term.
Joseph Shine, a 41-year-old Indian businessman living in Italy, had in August 2017 petitioned the supreme court to abolish the law.
He said the law discriminates against men by only holding them liable for extra-marital relationships while treating women like objects.
“Married women are not a special case for the purpose of prosecution for adultery. They are not in any way situated differently than men,” Shine said in his petition.
He said the law “indirectly discriminates against women by holding an erroneous presumption that women are the property of men”.
The Supreme court judges described the law as archaic, arbitrary and unconstitutional.
“It’s time to say that husband is not the master of wife,” chief justice of India, Dipak Misra, said Thursday, on behalf of the panel of five supreme court judges.
“Women should be treated with equality along with men.”
Judge Rohinton Nariman said “ancient notions of man being perpetrator and woman being victim no longer hold good”.
