"Soon, Adultery Won’t Be A Crime But A Social Offence"

For long, there has been a debate on whether adultery should be regarded as a crime as it is under Indian laws. Finally, the argument seems to be going in favour of those against this social malaise being treated as a criminal act.

The draft National Policy on Criminal Justice, authored by the Madhava Menon committee, has responded to the demand of the National Commission for Women (NCW) to de-criminalise adultery by recommending that it should be treated as a social rather than a criminal offence.

While listing adultery among the offences that should be removed from the category of criminal acts, the Madhava Menon panel has said that by treating an adulterer as a criminal actually becomes an obstacle in any rapprochement between husband and wife, besides making the accused vulnerable to extortionist policemen.

Says the draft report: "There is a universal tendency to put down all types of social conduct with the use of criminal sanctions without examining the use of possible alternative means of social control and without studying the impact of such step on the status of criminal justice in the country."

At present, Section 497 of IPC provides for jail up to five years as well as a fine for adultery. Interestingly, NCW has opposed a proposal to amend Section 497 to bring women also under the purview. IPC says the wife shall not be liable even as an abettor, based on the reasoning that a woman involved in illicit relationship with a married man is a victim rather than author of the ‘crime’.