Abstract

“Adultery is not necessarily the cause of an unhappy marriage, but often it is the result of an unhappy marriage” . Adultery can be described as the act of a married person having a sexual relationship with a person besides the person's wife or husband of the opposite sex. Personal laws all over the world decry adultery and this is considered as a ground for divorce or separation. Even the Hindu Shastric laws, which did not allow for divorce, unambiguously rejected adultery. Adultery is established as being one of the reasons for divorce or judicial separation under present Indian personal laws . The laws dealing with adultery were enforced by the Indian Penal Code in 1860 and its abolition was a big step towards gender neutrality. However, there still remains some laws which state otherwise but the judgement shows we’re moving towards the right direction. An Indian lady, according to Lord Macaulay, is a holy cow who could never do any wrong. The man is the one who does all the wrongdoings. Besides, he believed that women could not be prosecuted for committing adultery as either this will not only be a challenge to women's holy sanctity, but it would also lead to a collapse of the institution of marriage, leading to general family disorganization .

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