India: Women can't be prosecuted for adultery: Supreme Court

Sory here. Excerpt:

'Only a man can be proceeded against and punished for adultery, but the wife cannot be, even as an abettor, the Supreme Court has ruled.

A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R.M. Lodha said, “Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code [which deals with adultery] is currently under criticism from certain quarters for showing a strong gender bias, for it makes the position of a married woman almost as a property of her husband. But in terms of the law as it stands, it is evident from a plain reading of the Section that only a man can be proceeded against and punished for … adultery. Indeed, the Section provides expressly that the wife cannot be punished even as an abettor.”

Kalyani appealed against an Andhra Pradesh High Court judgment that dismissed her petition against registration of a case for adultery under Section 497 of the IPC and wrongful restraint under Section 341 of the IPC by another woman, Sailaja, who alleged that her husband was in an illicit relationship with her.'