ValkyaEditorial

Tagged “section-497”

1 article on section-497.

Landmark JudgmentSupreme Court of India

Joseph Shine v. Union of India: the unanimous striking down of Section 497 IPC

On 27 September 2018 — three weeks after Navtej Singh Johar — a five-judge Constitution Bench unanimously struck down Section 497 IPC, the colonial-era adultery provision that had treated the wife as the husband's property and the consenting adulterer as a thief of marital chastity. Four concurring opinions deployed the dignity and equality framework to dismantle a provision that had survived more than a century and a half of constitutional silence. A digest of the holding, the doctrinal architecture, and the relationship with the BNS framework.

Valkya Editorial··10 min