![\"Parliament](\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2018-09\/0d2pqh9s_adultery-affair-relationship-generic-_625x300_27_September_18.jpg\"\/ "\\"Parliament")
<\/div>\nAdultery and gay sex were decriminalised in two historic verdicts in 2018 (File).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
New Delhi: <\/b><\/p>\n
A parliamentary committee is likely to recommend re-criminalisation of the adultery<\/a> law and criminalisation of non-consensual sex between men, women and\/or trans members, as part of an overhaul of colonial-era criminal laws, sources said. The panel is studying three bills to replace the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Indian Evidence Act – the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, respectively.<\/p>\n The bills – tabled by Union Home Minister Amit Shah – were sent to the Standing Committee on Home Affairs, which is headed by BJP MP Brij Lal, for further scrutiny in August with a three-month deadline.<\/p>\n On Friday the committee met but did not adopt a draft report on the bills as opposition members sought a three-month extension.\u00a0The next meeting will be on November 6.<\/p>\n The draft report is expected to recommend that adultery be made a criminal offence again – either by restoring the law struck down by the Supreme Court in 2018 or passing a new law.<\/p>\n In 2018 a five-member bench ruled “adultery cannot and should not be a crime”. “It can be a ground for a civil offense… for divorce…” then Chief Justice, Dipak Misra, had said, reasoning also that a 163-year-old, colonial-era law followed the invalidated concept of “husband is master of the wife”.<\/p>\n READ |<\/strong>Adultery Not A Crime, “Husband Not Master of Wife,” Says Supreme Court<\/a><\/p>\n The law then said that a man who had sex with a married woman – and without her husband’s consent – could face a five-year sentence if convicted. The woman would not be punished.<\/p>\n The report is likely to recommend that the struck-down provision on adultery, when brought back, be made gender-neutral, meaning the man and the woman could face punishment.<\/p>\n The unpublished draft report states: “For the sake of protecting the institution of marriage, this Section (497 of the IPC) should be retained in the Sanhita by making it gender-neutral.”<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the committee reportedly also discussed Section 377<\/a> – a British-era provision that criminalised homosexuality, and which was also struck down by the Supreme Court five years ago.<\/p>\nOn Adultery<\/h2>\n
On Section 377<\/h2>\n