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Monday, December 25, 2006
Adultery and crime
I present to you, in all their archaic glory, sections 497 and 498 of the Indian Penal Code:
And should adultery be treated as a crime, or merely a breach of trust between two people, and thus as a civil case instead of a criminal one? The question comes to mind after reading this report (via email from reader Venkata Datla), and the last sentence there worries me. What on earth is a "national consensus"?
497. AdulteryAll this assumes, of course, that a woman is equivalent to a man's property, and does not possess volition of her own. Can you stand for such laws to exist in the country where you live?
Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery, and shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both. In such case the wife shall be punishable as an abettor.
498. Enticing or taking away or detaining with criminal intent a married woman
Whoever takes or entices away any woman who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of any other man, from that man, or from any person having the care of her on behalf of that man, with intent that she may have illicit intercourse with any person, or conceals or detains with that intent any such woman, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.
And should adultery be treated as a crime, or merely a breach of trust between two people, and thus as a civil case instead of a criminal one? The question comes to mind after reading this report (via email from reader Venkata Datla), and the last sentence there worries me. What on earth is a "national consensus"?
