Shortly before the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, which defined adultery as a punishable offence, the Rajasthan High Court upheld a man’s conviction under the law.
This was probably the last conviction under the legal provision described by the apex court as “manifestly arbitrary” in its September 27 verdict.
After the SC verdict, adultery stands decriminalised, though it will be a ground for divorce.
In its judgment delivered on September 20 on the appeals filed by convict Devaram, a resident of Jaipur district, and two others, the High Court held him guilty of adultery, as he was cohabiting with Shakuntala, the wife of Heera Lal, but acquitted him of the rape and conspiracy charges.
He was facing rape charges in connection with the suicide by Shakuntala’s daughter in 2010.
Justice Pankaj Bhandari at the High Court’s Jaipur Bench stated in his 19-page judgment that there was “every possibility of false implication” of Devaram in the rape case by complainant Mr. Heera Lal as he harboured enmity towards him.
