Court Reflects on Adultery and Gender Equality in Divorce Case

The Delhi High Court discharged a man accused of adultery, citing the unconstitutional nature of Section 497 IPC. The ruling likened outdated views of women as property to instances in the Mahabharat, underscoring the need to move past archaic laws that conflate adultery with criminality.

The Delhi High Court has dismissed charges against a man accused of adultery, highlighting the outdated perspective of treating women as their husband's property—a view famously depicted in the Mahabharat through the story of Draupadi.

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna detailed the Supreme Court's decision to nullify Section 497 IPC, regarding it as unconstitutional. This section labeled adultery an offense only in the absence of a married woman's consent or her husband's connivance, ignoring the agency of the woman involved, considered neither an offender nor an abettor.

The judge cited that the ''chauvinistic logic'' in treating women as chattel was further demonstrated when the apex court declared Section 497 unconstitutional. Such antiquated laws, she stressed, have no place in modern society where committed relationships are considered matters of privacy, not criminality.

(With inputs from agencies.)