ADULTERY

31.10.2023

ADULTERY , Daily Current Affairs , RACE IAS : Best IAS Coaching in Lucknow 

Why in the news?

The recently conducted Parliamentary panel review suggests that reinstating Section 377 and criminalising adultery might be recommended to the Indian government in the proposed legal reforms.

Key Point

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has formulated a draft report which recommends bringing back the Adultery law, and criminalising non-consensual sex between women, men, or trans people.

Committees of Parliament

About: A Parliamentary Committee consists of Members of Parliament, who are either appointed, elected, or nominated by the House or its presiding officer, the Speaker or Chairman.

oThese committees operate under the guidance of the Speaker or Chairman and submit their reports either to the House or to the Speaker or Chairman.

Origin: The concept of Parliamentary Committees has its roots in the British Parliament.

• Article 105: Pertains to the privileges of MPs.
• Article 118: Empowers Parliament to establish rules for governing its procedures and business conduct.

Types of Parliamentary Committees:

Standing Committees

 oStanding Committees are permanent (constituted every year or periodically) and work on a continuous basis.

It can be classified into the following six categories:

1. Financial Committees
2. Departmental Standing Committees
3. Committees to Enquire
4. Committees to Scrutinise and Control
5. Committees Relating to the Day-to-Day Business of the House
6. House-Keeping Committees or Service Committees

Ad Hoc Committees.

• Ad Hoc Committees are temporary and cease to exist on completion of the task assigned to them.
• They are further subdivided into Inquiry Committees and Advisory Committees.
• The principal Ad hoc Committees are the Select and Joint Committees on Bills.

Ad hoc committees can be divided into two categories:

1. Inquiry committees
2. Advisory committees

• The principal Ad hoc committees are the Select and Joint committees on Bills, Railway convention committee, Joint committee on food management in Parliament House Complex, etc.

Adultery

• Adultery refers to the act of engaging in a sexual relationship with someone other than one's spouse while being married. The perception and legal consequences of adultery vary across cultures and legal systems.
• In many societies, adultery is considered morally and socially unacceptable, and it can have serious consequences for relationships and families.
• In some legal systems, adultery may be grounds for divorce or can affect issues such as alimony and property division. Laws and attitudes toward adultery differ widely around the world, and what is considered adultery in one jurisdiction might not be viewed the same way in another.
• Adultery in India was considered a criminal offence under Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) until 2018. This law stated that a man could be punished for having consensual sexual intercourse with the wife of another man without his consent. The law did not consider the woman involved in the act as an offender.

Section 377: Criminalising homosexuality

• Section 377 of the British colonial penal code criminalized all sexual acts "against the order of nature".
• This law was struck down in 2018 by the Supreme Court of India.
• Notably, there was no provision for addressing non-consensual sex between "men, women, transperson, and acts of bestiality" after Section 377 was removed from the IPC.

Section 497: Criminalising Adultery

• Adultery was a criminal offence under Chapter XX of the Indian Penal Code until it was quashed by the Supreme Court of India on 27 September 2018 as unconstitutional.
• The law dated from 1860.
• Under Section 497 of the IPC, which was the section dealing with adultery, a man who had consensual sexual intercourse with the wife of another man without that husband's consent will be punished for this offence.

Source:Mint