The Indian Penal Code has long been steeped in British imperial arrogance. What was legal for the white masters was not permissible for Indian subjects, especially Indian Women. The Supreme Court has ruled doing away with the colonial legacy. Gender inequality which was antagonistic to wives in the case of Triple Talaq appears to have vitiated Indian social mores as a whole under the Indian Penal Code. British scholars who glorified Indian literacy and mythological heritage could not strike at sexual discrimination in the case of adultery. Section 198 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure robbed women of agency and reduced them to chattel. The existing law allowed only men to have agency and could be the aggrieved party. The Apex Court should be congratulated for having struck at the section at a time when Indian Government and Civil Society are fighting for gender equality and women’s empowerment. Section 497 reeks of musty feudal mentality and criminalized men who engaged in adultery with somebody else’s wife without the knowledge or consent of the women’s husband. This is preposterous. Otherwise the husband was considered the aggrieved party and the woman was not punishable as an abettor. Section 198 (2) clarified that only the woman’s husband can be the aggrieved party if his wife willingly commits adultery. All this meant women were considered private property though the law seemed weighed against adulterous men. The eternal triangle appears to have created a legal muddle.
The Supreme Court now makes adultery a civil and not a criminal matter between husband and wife. The criminality of adultery has been nullified. The exception in the case of suicide is dicey as incitement to suicide or attempted suicides are no longer a crime. It is hoped that the suicide exception will be deleted from the Statute Book. Live-in-girls now have the status of wives and the right to inheritance. The ossified moral code in Indian society is breaking down. There is one hitch. Adultery justifies divorce and that can adversely affect the lives of children. Already there is news that a woman in Chennai died of suicide after her husband told her that he could live openly with his mistress. While the slew of judgments from the Supreme Court are progressive, they also require that the Indian mindset be ready to accept such judgments. For instance the reading down of Section 377 that criminalized sexual activities between individuals of the same sex pleased the LGBTQIA+ community but those outside the community cannot accept this new reading of the law.