Why not make adultery legal in india?

if divorce is enough then it is more than good sir. i also accept it. but you know women sometimes pretend to be dukhiyary and ask more money. thats why i say that. otherwise When the basic ground for marriage, that is commitment and trust has been breached and if no scope for reform or repent, it is clearly logical to have a divorce.

Provision of alimony is already there in law for monetary compensation to the affected spouse. Decriminalization or repeal of Section 497 IPC due to inconsistency with Article 21 of Constitution, does not mean that it has to be replaced with another law that provides monetary compensation. Moreover anyways Section 497 IPC does not help the affected lady, instead it helps the affected husband who can put the "other" man in jail.

yes exactly. many men too can misuse this provision. they can conspire with their wife to trap their enemy on charge of adultry.

adultry must be decriminalized at any cost.

Conspire with wife to trap another man means "connivance", in the light of what existing law (497) says, the other man is participating in s*x with some other man's wife with his "connivance".  And that is not liable for punishment because Sec.497 says,

Whoever has s*xual 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 s*xual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery...

that means if A is indulging in adultery with the wife of B and is doing it with B's "connivance" it is not punishable.

if there is no connivance then also adultry will not be any crime. that is my point. how about a point?

No.  As far as I can understand from your previous post, your point was that the conspiracy factor can be concealed by the husband and ensure his enemy to get trapped to be liable under Sec.497 by encouraging his wife to indulge in the act of adultery with his enemy.

Law did not presume that offender can befool the court.

Adultery:

1) Where a man has adulterous relationship with a married woman and she got pregnant with his child-then there arises a scenario where the child in question is not of the husband, but he still is liable to provide for it. The other guy not only had fun with the married woman but has cheated the husband into raising his offspring! In old time there was no DNA testing. the poor fellow did not have any way to prove that he is not the father and forced to take care of the child. hence one can surmise why adultery law was written as such and criminalised!

Currently there is DNA testing for determination of paternity.

Hence one can argue for decriminalizing adultery. Ofcourse adultery should be a ground for divorce.Denial of maintenance for adulterous woman and heavy maintenance as penalty for men.

1. I agree to views of @ Balla. Adultery is a "moral issue" and not "CIVIL issue" that defeats larger sections of public policy making. It is high time Adultery section of IPC should be decriminalized.

2. Adultery is a private offence, it is only concerned with the limited interest of an injured husband and not the institution of marriage or the society.

3. It is obvious if something is a private offence, it is not against the STATE or SOCIETY but only against that private person.

4. S. 497 IPC shows a strong gender bias and treating a married woman almost as a property of her husband.

5. The law on adultery in current form smacks of s*xism from the perspective of both genders. On the one hand it denies adulterous women agency perceiving them as their husbands' property vis-à-vis on the other hand it targets and prosecutes only men.

6. The Law Commission's 42nd. report had recommended scrapping the present immunity to married women though retaining the provision itself. But extending the ambit of punitive action is hardly a pragmatic solution to a widely prevalent social emerging phenomenon.

7. It's well known that criminalization of widespread social behavior and trends merely drives them underground. Remember that GLBST morality issue was underground social phenomenon in Indian context for too many dozens of decades till it was ultimately decriminalized by D HC. The more civilized way is to decriminalize adultery too as homos*xuality recently was which is what I stress. Many western countries have already decriminalized adultery.

8. Adultery should be recognized as a personal transgression in the ethical realm best left to the individuals concerned to sort it out. It really can't be the STATE'S business to play nanny and intrude into every aspect of the personal lives of citizens.

9. The right to have s*x with a person of one’s choice is a fundamental right covered by Art. 21 (right to life) under the COI.

10. Human relationships depend on compatibility and spouse commit adultery only when other spouse is incompatible. In LCI itself we have too (burning at both ends) examples before us.  It is a woman’s fundamental right to have s*x with a man of her choice and therefore the same cannot be curtailed by an archaic and outdated concept of decency / morality.

I would suggest  to make adultery PUNISHABLE  for women also !!!

Social condition is not like the one during which this Adultery law (sec 497) was enacted and women were not made punishable under this law.

In todays time, women should also be made punishable under sec 497.

Let me see which female members want to raise their voice in support of "doing adultery and not getting punished".

 Not possible in India as all ladies are like Savitri but they forgets Surpanakha

Originally posted by :Indrajit
"	I would suggest  to make adultery PUNISHABLE  for women also !!!   Social condition is not like the one during which this Adultery law (sec 497) was enacted and women were not made punishable under this law.   In todays time, women should also be made punishable under sec 497.   100% agree.

people are so against 498A, dv  etc..why they dont write about this section?

Thanks for agreeing  .... !!!

Adultery by woman can be punished under Section 406 of IPC for criminal breach of trust.  Women also can file cases against husbands who involve in relationship with unmarried women under Section 406 IPC. 

@ Chandrasekhar


For heaven’s sake in your over enthusiasm to decipher Law as it stands in India in "common man’s way of seeking justice" kindly do not self-define / over-simplify existing Law without further “application of mind”;


For your specific understanding in order to constitute the offence of (S. 406 IPC) i.e. criminal breach of trust, following ingredients must exist:-

1. There should be an entrustment by one person to another of the property or of any dominion over property;

2. Such entrustment must be in trust;

3. There must have been misappropriation or conversion to his own use by the person who receives the property in trust;

4. Such conversion or retention of property must be against or in violation of any direction of law prescribing the mode in which such a trust is to be discharged or any other local contract made touching the discharge of such trust.

Are the basic ingredient of misappropriation of the property meted out in your dream by charging adultry by a woman under S. 406 IPC???


How on earth “Adultery by woman can be punished under S. 406 of IPC for criminal breach of trust. “?????


I donot know if other readers want to know application of S. 406 IPC vis-a-vis adultry but atleast I would love to know how you hook up S. 406 IPC vis-à-vis adultery???????