'Marriage is sacred bond, make adultery crime again': Parliamentary panel to Centre
PTC News Desk: Adultery should be made a crime again because "the institution of marriage is sacred" and must be "protected," according to a parliamentary panel's report on the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, a bill introduced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in September.
The report also argued that the revised adultery law should treat it as a "gender-neutral" crime, with both parties - the man and the woman - held equally responsible.
If accepted by the government, the panel's report will contradict a landmark 2018 Supreme Court ruling that stated "adultery cannot and should not be a crime."
The Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita is one of three documents that are intended to replace the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Indian Evidence Act. It was referred to the Standing Committee on Home Affairs, chaired by BJP MP Brij Lal, for further scrutiny in August.
"... the State has no business to enter into the lives of a couple," Congress MP P Chidambaram said as he raised three "fundamental objections," including claims that all three bills are "largely a copy and paste of the existing laws."
A Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra ruled in 2018 that adultery "can be a ground for a civil offence... for divorce..." but not a criminal offence. The court reasoned that the 163-year-old colonial-era law adhered to the invalidated concept of "husband is master of the wife."
- With inputs from agencies
