Nagpur: Even as the Centre has opposed a plea in Supreme Court that seeks to make men and women equally liable for adultery, an RTI reply revealed about gender discrimination in the Indian Penal Code, particularly against wife, under Section 497 (adultery) of the IPC.
The reply by Ministry of Home Affairs informed that there is no other law besides this IPC section for registering offences under the term ‘adultery’. It means, only a husband can file a criminal case under Section 497 against the paramour with whom his wife had undergone a sexual intercourse. However, a wife cannot lodge a complaint against the woman with whom her husband has physical relationship.
The central government had recently filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court strongly advocating that adultery should remain an offence. It also opposed a plea seeking to make men and women equally liable under Section 497. The affidavit was filed in response to a case where apex court’s constitutional bench is re-examining the constitutionality of Section 497 that incorporates provisions for the adultery law. The SC bench would examine whether exemption granted to women from adultery needs a change.
The RTI was filed by Dr Indrajit Khandekar, professor and in-charge of Clinical Forensic Medicine Unit (CFMU) at Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS). He stated that there was clear discrimination in the laws as a married man can file criminal case under adultery against his wife’s paramour, but a wife can’t.
“In ultimate analysis, our Indian laws unfortunately endorses that the wife is the husband’s property and conveys that a man is entitled to have exclusive possession and access to his wife’s sexuality. Moreover, a woman is not eligible to have such an exclusive right and claim over her husband. She is, therefore, not entitled to prosecute either her promiscuous husband or the ‘outsider woman’ with whom her husband had consensual sex,” he said.
In his RTI query, Khandekar had asked whether there is any section in IPC which permits the wife to file a criminal case against the other woman with whom the husband had indulged in physical contact without wife’s consent.
What Section 497 of IPC says
Adultery — 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 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.
