Adultery should be made a crime again: Parliamentary panel recommends to the government, submits report on IPC bill

In 2018, the Supreme Court canceled the adultery law. Under this, if a married woman/man had a relationship with someone else, a case was registered against the man having the relationship. -Symbolic Image

Adultery should be made a crime again, because marriage is a sacred tradition, it should be protected. A parliamentary panel has made this recommendation to the government in its report on the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Bill on Tuesday.

The report also argues that the amended adultery law should consider it a gender neutral crime. Men and women should be held equally responsible for this.

If the government accepts the panel’s report, it will be contrary to the historic decision given by a five-member bench of the Supreme Court in 2018, which had said that adultery cannot and should not be a crime.

Opposition members had asked for time to study
This committee has been formed to consider the three bills introduced in Parliament by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in September to replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and Evidence Act. The parliamentary committee met on 27 October, but did not accept the draft report. Keeping in mind the arguments of some opposition members, the committee had sought time to further study the draft.

Some opposition members, including Congress leader P. Chidambaram, had requested committee chairman Brijlal to extend the time given for taking a decision on DOFT by three months. Members said that it is not right to push these bills for electoral gains.

Amit Shah had introduced bills making changes in IPC, CrPC-Evidence Act in the Lok Sabha on August 11.

These bills were introduced in Parliament on 11 August. In August itself, the draft related to this was sent to the Standing Committee on Home Affairs. The committee was given three months time to accept this draft.

Now know about adultery law…
If a married woman has a relationship with another man. In such a situation, the husband could file a case against that person under adultery law. Similarly, if a married man has relations with another woman, the wife could file a case against him.

This was a crime under section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, in which there was a provision for five years of imprisonment and fine on the accused. In such cases, neither a case was registered against the woman nor there was a provision to punish her.

In 2018, the Supreme Court struck down the adultery law. The then Chief Justice Deepak Mishra had called this law unconstitutional. He said that adultery cannot be considered a crime. This decision was given by the five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court on the PIL of Joseph Shiney.

Amit Shah introduced bills to change three laws
On August 11, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had introduced bills to amend three 163-year-old fundamental laws in the Lok Sabha. The biggest change is regarding the treason law, which will be brought in a new form. These bills are Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and Evidence Act.

Talk about those 3 laws in which changes were made

What changes will be brought about by the 3 bills?
Many sections and provisions will now change. There are 511 sections in IPC, now 356 will be left. 175 sections will change. 8 new sections will be added, 22 sections will be eliminated. Similarly, 533 sections will be left in CrPC. 160 sections will change, 9 new ones will be added, 9 will end. There will be a provision to conduct interrogation till trial through video conference, which was not there earlier.

The biggest change is that now the trial court will have to give every decision within a maximum of 3 years. There are 5 crore cases pending in the country. Of these, 4.44 crore cases are in the trial court. Similarly, out of 25,042 posts of judges in district courts, 5,850 posts are vacant.

All three bills have been sent to the parliamentary committee for scrutiny. After this they will be passed in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Understand 3 big changes…

How are the new laws for the states?
According to government claims, extensive opinion polling has been done before presenting the bill. According to the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, law and order and police are state subjects. There is a national debate on the Uniform Civil Code through the Law Commission, hence a meaningful debate in the country with consultation with the states is necessary before making changes in criminal laws.

Government’s preparation: These changes have happened after 4 years of discussion
On behalf of the government, it was said that apart from 18 states, 6 union territories, Supreme Court, 22 High Courts, judicial institutions, 142 MPs and 270 MLAs, the public has also given suggestions regarding these bills. After four years of discussion and 158 meetings during this period, the government has introduced the bill.

The first meeting for these changes was held in September 2019 in room number G-74 of the Library of Parliament House. There was no progress in this for a year during Corona.