Lawyers, activists welcome Supreme Court judgement on adultery law

The Supreme Court verdict declaring that adultery is not a crime received was widely welcomed Thursday with several lawyers and activists saying it was an antiquated colonial era law that treated women as properties of their husbands. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was unanimous in striking down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code dealing with the offence of adultery, holding it manifestly arbitrary, archaic and violative of the rights to equality and equal opportunity to women. Senior Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan termed the verdict a fine judgement that did away with an "antiquated" law. "Another fine judgement by the SC striking down the antiquated law in Sec 497 of Penal code, which treats women as property of husbands & criminalises adultery (only of man who sleeps with someone's wife). Adultery can be ground for divorce but not criminal," Bhushan said on Twitter. Congress MP and president of women's wing of the party Sushmita Dev

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