b555 Posted December 4, 2011 Posted December 4, 2011 Only a man can be proceeded against and punished for adultery, but the wife cannot be, even as an abettor, the Supreme Court has ruled. A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R.M. Lodha said, Å´ection 497 of the Indian Penal Code [which deals with adultery] is currently under criticism from certain quarters for showing a strong gender bias, for it makes the position of a married woman almost as a property of her husband. But in terms of the law as it stands, it is evident from a plain reading of the Section that only a man can be proceeded against and punished for adultery. Indeed, the Section provides expressly that the wife cannot be punished even as an abettor. more : http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2687318.ece
ganeshran Posted December 4, 2011 Posted December 4, 2011 Is Adultery a crime under the Indian penal code I thought it was a grounds for divorce but not a punishable offence.
DomainK Posted December 4, 2011 Posted December 4, 2011 Yes, the law has existed for a long time. Let me also add that a wife need not lodge a complaint against the husband for the law enforcement to act. Even an anonymous complaint is enough. The police can act on it's own and arrest a husband in case of adultery and even if the wife is fine with it, the court can sentence the husband to whatever punishment is prescribed under that law. Then it gets even funnier: If a husband finds his wife cheating, he can not take her to court, but he can certainly take the man that the wife is cheating with to court and there is law to punish such man. So, the law holds that women can sleep around, but only men are punishable for that. Very sad if the supreme court agrees and refuses to change such idiotic law.
DomainK Posted December 4, 2011 Posted December 4, 2011 Is Adultery a crime under the Indian penal code I thought it was a grounds for divorce but not a punishable offence. Adultery is a crime. The Indian law holds the view that marriage is an agreement between the husband and the wife and adultery is a breach of such agreement and hence is a crime. However the laws around it are absurd and weird.
DomainK Posted December 4, 2011 Posted December 4, 2011 dk keeping tabs on these things :ohmy: We all have to get married some day. One should know the terrain.
Prakat Posted December 4, 2011 Posted December 4, 2011 We all have to get married some day. One should know the terrain. :roti: :cantstop:
Tiger80 Posted December 5, 2011 Posted December 5, 2011 Majority of social laws particularly the women centric laws are stupid and nearly impossible to apply in practical life.No wonder Police in all those cases just act as a broker and make a killing
Vijay.Sharma Posted December 5, 2011 Posted December 5, 2011 What is the point in treating something as natural as sex, a crime? Agar miya biwi raazi then kayko qazi ko kujli ho rahi hai. If the wife sleeps with someone and the husband is ok with it or vice versa (mistakes happen and it is no grounds to punish someone...thodi na rape kiya kisi ne?) In today's age when there is so much more maturity and acceptance in cosmopolitan life about sex being a natural requirement why go punishing people for it.
Vijay.Sharma Posted December 5, 2011 Posted December 5, 2011 But come to think of it, this law looks like the polar opposite of the shariyah law where it takes 4 eye-witnesses :nervous: for a woman to prove she was raped. And that too those eye witnesses should be men. So, India in order to balance the gender bias has gone the other way - :--D
Mariyam Posted December 5, 2011 Posted December 5, 2011 What is the point in treating something as natural as sex' date=' a crime? [b']Agar miya biwi raazi then kayko qazi ko kujli ho rahi hai. If the wife sleeps with someone and the husband is ok with it or vice versa (mistakes happen and it is no grounds to punish someone...thodi na rape kiya kisi ne?) As per law that's not adultery. As you have a consenting spouse. 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' date=' without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting 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 5 years, or with fine, or with both. In such case, the wife shall not be punishable as an abettor[/quote'] As for your initial point, yes, we all agree that sex is something natural. But the punishment is meted out for reneging on the 'contact' of marriage. When a person registers a marriage and sign on the marrigae certificate, he/she signs that he agrees to follow certain norms. When you hide and have a relationship with someone else, you are violating those norms you've signed to agree to.
Mariyam Posted December 5, 2011 Posted December 5, 2011 Then it gets even funnier: If a husband finds his wife cheating, he can not take her to court, but he can certainly take the man that the wife is cheating with to court and there is law to punish such man. . Yes, he can!! He can take her to court for a divorce. Proof of adultery/ admission of adultery is generally enough to get a divorce.
ViruRulez Posted December 5, 2011 Posted December 5, 2011 We all have to get married some day. One should know the terrain. :cantstop: On a serious note, maybe live in will become extremely popular in India too in the next decade. So, probably adultery law would not make that much of a problem in the future. But completely agree it is a gender biased law and discrimination against males. :--D
Vijay.Sharma Posted December 5, 2011 Posted December 5, 2011 :cantstop: On a serious note, maybe live in will become extremely popular in India too in the next decade. So, probably adultery law would not make that much of a problem in the future. But completely agree it is a gender biased law and discrimination against males. :--DYou wouldn't believe it.. live in is not allowed as per our law :giggle: My ex-wife and I were living in before we got married...when we wanted to register our marriage and went to the marriage registrar, he told us while no one bothers about it but if two people live in the same house and someone complains then it is a criminal offence!
Mariyam Posted December 5, 2011 Posted December 5, 2011 You wouldn't believe it.. live in is not allowed as per our law :giggle: My ex-wife and I were living in before we got married...when we wanted to register our marriage and went to the marriage registrar, he told us while no one bothers about it but if two people live in the same house and someone complains then it is a criminal offence! It is not illegal. And what exactly will someone complain about?? "The Apex court justified that if two sound-minded adults of the opposite sex seek to live together without getting married the question of a criminal offense does not arise at all." http://www.lawisgreek.com/live-in-relationships-supreme-court-verdict However, there is some ambiguity on what exactly constitutes a live in? For eg, its not very clear how to treat a case where a man maintains a woman financially and has a relationship with her , i.e a mistress. Or if servants staying at a residence can be counted as live ins. Was your example from the early 90s? Even a child born of a live in is entitled to get a share in the property of both the father as well as the mother. The Domestic Violence Bill, 2006 doesn't discriminate between a married woman and one who is in a live in relationship.
Tiger80 Posted December 5, 2011 Posted December 5, 2011 You wouldn't believe it.. live in is not allowed as per our law :giggle: My ex-wife and I were living in before we got married...when we wanted to register our marriage and went to the marriage registrar, he told us while no one bothers about it but if two people live in the same house and someone complains then it is a criminal offence! In India No law at present deal with the concept of live-in-relationships and their legality. Still even in the absence of a specific legislation on the subject, it is praise-worthy that under The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, all benefits are bestowed on woman living in such kind of arrangement by reason of being covered within the term Ã…Ã…omestic relationship under Section 2(f). If we propose to enact a law to regulate live-in-relationships, though it would grant rights to parties to it but at the same time it would also impose obligations on them. Couples prefer to choose it only to have no responsibility of any sort, but if it is guided by some law, then it would not be so readily preferred. To consider of enacting a law on the lines of provisions in other countries may not be successful as their relationships are granted sanction mainly to legalize gay relationship. In India, since it would not be socially permissible to have relationship between persons of same sex, the law enacted for them by the countries cannot act as guiding force. http://www.indialawjournal.com/volume2/issue_2/article_by_saakshi.html Even Dv act 2005 protect women from domestic voilence in live in
Vijay.Sharma Posted December 5, 2011 Posted December 5, 2011 I noticed Mariyam mentions "Couples prefer to choose it only to have no responsibility of any sort, but if it is guided by some law, then it would not be so readily preferred" That is a gross generalization. People like me, and there are lacs like me, who are neither interested in having marriage ceremoniesn or need any certificate from a third party to tell us that we are in "holy matrimony" will opt for living-in especially since the 2005 Act without ever giving up on our "responsibilities".
Mariyam Posted December 5, 2011 Posted December 5, 2011 I noticed Mariyam mentions "Couples prefer to choose it only to have no responsibility of any sort' date= but if it is guided by some law, then it would not be so readily preferred" That's from an article the poster Tiger80 shared. I agree with you on all counts. The main opposition to Live in relationships isn't on the grounds of morality/religion, but for practical purposes. The trouble is, what happens, say for eg., the 'wife' in the Live in dies and she is the sole heiress of a fortune of crores of rupees. Can the 'husband' claim her fortunes? Even if her father is against the live in? What if he makes another will after his daughter passes away? ( An actual case) What surname does a kid born of a live in keep, and who gets to keep custody if the couple break up? (Again, an actual case). A kid born of a live in was not given admission in a community school ( Sindhi) because his parents weren't married, though the father was Sindhi. At that time the kid was being raised only by his mother. Is the school right in doing so? And there are many such issues, which would be easier to circumvent if the laws are clear. You may not need a ceremony or a rite to get married, but the whole institution of marriage gives you access to a lot of legal recourse that may not be available to you in case of a live in. I didn't mention that.
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