The Decriminalisation of Adultery in India

In a significant decision in 2018, the Supreme Court of India decriminalized adultery, striking it off from the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The judgment was delivered by a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, and included former CJI D. Y. Chandrachud and Justices A. M. Khanwilkar, R. F. Nariman, and Indu Malhotra. The case, Joseph Shine v. Union of India, began in 2017 when a non-resident Indian from Kerala filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the constitutional validity of the adultery law under Section 497 of the IPC and Section 198(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

The law, as it stood, punished a man with up to five years of imprisonment for having sexual relations with another man's wife. However, the wife who consented to the act was exempt from prosecution. Moreover, the law did not apply to a married man who had sexual relations with an unmarried woman or a widow. Interestingly, only the husband of the adulterous wife could file a complaint under Section 198(2) of the CrPC.

The Supreme Court held that adultery should not be considered a criminal offense, although it remains a valid ground for divorce in civil law. The Court's decision was based on the principles of gender equality and personal liberty. In 2020, another five-judge Bench led by former CJI Sharad A Bobde dismissed petitions seeking a review of the verdict, stating that they lacked merit.