Supreme Court Verdict on Adultery would Ruin New Generation: Khumtai MLA Mrinal Saikia

Guwahati: After the Supreme Court scrapped the 158-year old Victorian law on adultery, Khumtai MLA Mrinal Saikia on Friday stated the verdict by the apex court cannot be accepted as it will violate holiness of marriage. He said this at the 5^th day of the Autumn Session of the Assam Legislative Assembly.

Saikia also said that the verdict of the Supreme Court cannot be accepted under any circumstances. “It will ruin the new generation,” claimed MLA Saikia today.

It may be mentioned that the apex court on September 27 in its verdict stated that the 158-year-old Victorian Law is unconstitutional as it only punished a man for an affair but not the woman, treating her as “property”.

The verdict also reads that “adultery is no longer a crime in India even though, “without a shadow of a doubt”, it can be grounds for divorce.

Chief Justice Dipak Misra while calling the Victorian law on adultery as arbitrary, said, “A man having sexual intercourse with a married woman is not a crime.”

The Chief Justice further reiterated “There can’t be any social license which destroys a home. The wife can’t be treated as property and it’s time to say that the husband is not the master of a woman.”

Furthermore, the Supreme Court also was of the view that since most countries have abolished laws against adultery, it is high time to make amendments and scrap the Victorian law.

The five-member constitution bench said making adultery a crime is retrograde and would mean “punishing unhappy people”.

It can be said that the Supreme Court’s verdict declaring adultery is not a crime has been widely welcomed by several lawyers and activists.

Meanwhile, Saikia also demanded the Supreme Court to share the matters related to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) with the government and make that public.