MPs' Panel Recommend Making Adultery A Crime Again

In 2018, the Supreme Court struck down Section 497 of IPC that penalized a man for having sex with another man's wife. The court, in its landmark ruling, had then said that the adultery law was archaic and reduced a woman to just a man's wife and treated her like a man's property. Now, in what seems to be a retrograde move, The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, which has examined the three Bills that are set to replace the Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Indian Evidence Act, has recommended the restoration of adultery as a crime, on gender-neutral lines. We find out the legal and social impact of this move with Former Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Supreme Court Advocate Aashutosh Srivastava.