Supreme Court likely to pronounce verdict on discriminatory adultery law today

The Supreme Court of India is likely to pronounce its verdict on decriminalisation ofSection 497 of the Indian Penal Code (Adultery Provision).

The case will be heard by a constitution bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Rohinton Nariman, Justice AM KHawilkar, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Indur Malhotra.

The apex court had been hearing a clutch of pleas seeking quashing of the adultery provision in the IPC on the ground that it only punishes married men for having extramarital sexual relations with a married woman.

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India's adultery law states that: "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 sexual 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."

Another part which has drew a row of criticism is that the law permits woman's husband to file a complaint against the man she has sexual intercourse with, but there is no such provision for the wife of the adulterous man. She cannot file a complaint against her husband or the other woman.

Interestingly, the adultery law, like much of Indian law, is a remnant of Victorian-era law handed down to the country by the British.

England itself has dropped the adultery law from its statute books.