"A woman makes her completely immune to the charge of adultery " SC

While adjudicating a CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 2232 OF 2011, the Hon. Mr. Justice Aftab Alam, of the Apex Court of India recently observed in respect of the offence of adultery against a married woman, that " the provision of Section 497 deals with the offence of adultery which is currently under criticism from certain quarters for showing a strong gender bias for it makes the position of a married woman almost as a property of her husband. But in terms of the law as it stands, it is evident from a plain reading of the Section that only a man can be proceeded against and punished for the offence of adultery. Indeed, the Section provides expressly that the wife cannot be punished even as an abettor. Thus, the mere fact that the appellant is a woman makes her completely immune to the charge of adultery and she cannot be proceeded against for that offence"