Supreme Court rules adultery is not a crime, scraps Section 497 of IPC

Watch: SC rules adultery is not a crime

Supreme Court rules adultery is not a crime, scraps Section 497 of IPC

NEW DELHI: Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal disagreed with the Supreme Court judgment on adultery and launched a study on its effect on women. She said that the commission receives thousands of complaints from women whose husbands are in adulterous relationships and they have been abandoned by them. These women are left to starve and fend for themselves and their children with no support from the husbands, she said.The commission launched a survey on Thursday in the wake of this judgment to ascertain the problems faced by women whose husbands are in adulterous relationships and the impact of the SC judgment on them. It has also asked for opinions from the public.Maliwal stated, “By decriminalising adultery, the Supreme Court has given an open general licence to the people of this country to have illegitimate relationships while being in marriages. SC should have made the law gender-neutral by criminalising the adulterous relationships by men as well as women. Instead, they have decriminalised the act of adultery itself.”“In our patriarchal society, the sense of entitlement of men makes them put the blame on the woman and claim to be in an unhappy marriage. In such a scenario, decriminalising adultery adds tremendously to their pain. I invite those in favour of the judgment to please visit the commission once and interact with these victims. A large part of our society has been neglected today in this judgment,” she said.DCW has encouraged women who are survivors of adulterous behaviour by their husbands to come forward and give their feedback and participate in the research.