NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has dropped an adultery case filed by a man against another person who was allegedly in a relationship with his wife. The court said that women cannot be treated as “property of their husbands.”
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna referred to Draupadi from Mahabharat, and ruled, “She had no say in the matter, and what followed was a terrible war that caused the deaths of many.”
The court said that even though Draupadi’s tale is well-known, the society took a long time to understand that treating women as a chattel is wrong. It was only when the Supreme Court, in the Joseph Shine case in 2018, struck down Section 497 of the IPC (adultery) that the society reflected on this misogynistic view.
The case was filed by a man who claimed his wife was having an affair with the petitioner. He claimed that the two had gone to Lucknow, stayed in a hotel room together pretending to be a married couple, and had sexual relations. When he confronted his wife, she told him to leave if he had a problem.
Justice Krishna said that as per an old ruling, once a law is declared unconstitutional, it applies to all ongoing cases. The court said that sharing a hotel room does not prove that two people had sex. “Just staying in the same room isn’t enough to assume anything happened,” the judge said, discharging the man from the case and setting aside the complaint.