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Thank You Supreme Court For Legalizing Extra-Marital Affairs!

Indian Court and Indian Laws – Does our judicial system impart justice equally to men and women? The answer seems to be in the favour of men, I think! With rape cases being dragged on for years, no proper laws penned down for punishing the molesters or rapists, the Indian Judiciary system has always been in question, especially when it comes to justice for women.

In a system where marital rape is not considered a crime, where women can be imprisoned for separating her husband from his parents, yet another law comes out against women. As per a recent ruling by the Supreme Court, “Husband’s extra-marital affairs do not amount to harassment or cruelty.” It has brought to light the discrepancy in our judicial system and the kind of injustice women might be getting subjected to, day in and day out.

Supreme Court Image

Image Source: www.sachtimes.com

Supreme Court passed this statement after a woman committed suicide knowing that her husband has had multiple extra-marital affairs. Now who is responsible for the mental trauma that the lady had to go when she got to know about her husband’s affairs? Sensibly speaking, the husband should be found guilty but the Supreme Court in the verdict says, “Extra-marital relationship, per se, or as such would not come under ambit of section 498A (Harassment to a married woman by her husband or his family members) of IPC. It would be illegal or immoral act, but other ingredients are to be brought home so that it would constitute a criminal offence.”

The sad story does not end here because the woman with whom the man was having an affair also committed and unable to bear the trauma, her mother and brother committed suicide too. So the kind of mess that this case has created is really disturbing.

The question however which arises here is that, how does one really judge whether a woman or a man might be subjected to mental cruelty? What are the grounds on which this can be ascertained? Because at the end of the day, psychological harassment is very subjective and difficult to ascertain, in cases like these it becomes obvious that the woman is suffering from a lot of mental trauma.

It has been further known that the man has appealed the court against the charges made against him. He was sentenced to four years following the verdict but post the appeal made, the SC freed him all the charges.

This is one of those rare cases which have brought to light the weak and vague judicial system of India. The laws are vaguely defined and most of the time leads to bad judgements. We condemn such judgements and their outcomes.

Feature Image Source: www.indianexpress.com

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