"Man having sexual intercourse with married woman not crime": Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Thursday declared that adultery is not a crime and called the Victorian adultery law arbitrary. However, the SC also added that adultery can definitely be grounds for divorce.

The SC scrapped the 158-year law which punished the man for an affair and not the woman as well, treating her as a property. The verdict was declared by a five-member constitution bench. Three of the members of the bench agreed that it is not right calling adultery a crime.

The Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra observed, "Any law which affects individual dignity, equity of women in a civilised society invites the wrath of the Constitution," and added that a man having an affair with a married woman is not a crime.