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Abstract
Forensic medicine teachers taught topic of adultery to medical students as one of the sexual offences,
medicolegal aspect of marriage, and as professional misconduct, which is part of medical ethics. The question is
of safeguarding / protecting socio-ethical value of our society and honour of medical profession. Section 497 IPC
came into existence during the British Rule. It is said that it is against Indian cultural values and not much less
than a slander. Therefore, in independent India it is totally unfair to allow continuing Section 497 IPC in its present
form.
This paper deals with definition, meanings and interpretations of the term adultery used in different context in
medical profession so that clear concept can be understood by every member of medical fraternity. Thus, help in
preventing unnecessary problems faced by doctors in day to day practice.
Key words: Adultery, Civil Offence, Criminal Offence, Professional Misconduct, Improper Conduct, Improper
Association, Immorality, Infidelity, Sexual Harassment at Work Place.
respondent (in the case of criminal offence, the wife)
was a consenting party. In short, the sexual
intercourse must be consensual. If the respondent did
not consent, just as when she was raped, it would not
amount to adultery. Sexual intercourse with the
respondent, when he, or she is unconscious, or under
influence of drug or liquor, will also not amount to
adultery. Similarly, sexual intercourse in the belief that
the adulterer is his or her spouse will also negate the
charge of adultery. [3]
The recently drafted National Policy, however, tries to
remove the apparent discrimination while pitching for
adultery as a social offence for both male and female
offenders. [4]
Introduction:
The accepted meaning of adultery in relation with
matrimonial law in India is as follows: Adultery may
be defined as consensual sexual intercourse
between a married person and a person of the
opposite sex, not the other spouse, during the
subsistence of marriage. [1]
The Indian Penal Code defines adultery as 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 not be punishable as abettor.
[2]
The framers of the Code did not make adultery an
offence punishable under the code. But the Second
Law Commission, after giving mature consideration to
the subject, came to conclusion that it was not
advisable to exclude this offence from the Code.
Adultery figures in the penal law of many nations, and
some of the most celebrated English lawyers have
considered its omission from the English law a defect.
[2]
Under both the criminal law and matrimonial law,
adultery is an offence against marriage and therefore,
in both cases it is essential that at the time of the
offence a valid marriage was subsisting. To constitute
the offence of adultery it is also necessary that the
Global Scenario:
Recently a Cambodian Court sentenced in absentia to
18 months in prison in an embezzlement lawsuit, to
the Prince, and a former Prime Minister of Combodia,
Norodom Ranariddh, who has been charged with
adultery for having a mistress while he is still legally
married to his wife. The Prince is currently living in
France, faces up to a year in prison and fines of up to
$245. Sok Kalyan, a prosecutor at the Phnom Penh
Municipal Court, filed the charge against the Prince.
He alleged Ranariddh has committed adultery with
his legally married wife Marie Ranariddh by
abandoning her to live with his mistress Ouk Phalla, a
former Cambodian classical dancer. The Prince also
has a three-years-old son with the mistress. [5]
The charge, stemming from a recent lawsuit from
Marie, was filed under an adultery law that was
adopted by Prime Minister Hun Sens rulling party-
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