EXTRA-MARITAL AFFAIRS

IMPACT OF EXTRA-MARITAL AFFAIRS ON CONTINUATION OF MARRIAGES.

India is known worldwide for its rich cultural and traditional values which are progressively being adapted by numerous countries all over the world. Being a safe home to countless communities and religions, it offers equal status to every tradition they hold and reserves the rights to not interfere in religious matters. Similarly, when it comes to marriages, it has various marriage acts based on different norms and traditions in the most prominent religions, like the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, Muslim Marriage Act, and Christian Marriage Act and for the Parsee there is Parsee Marriage and

Divorce Act. There is also a provision of Special Marriage Act 1954. However with the increasing influence of globalization, particularly promoting western culture, the traditions are getting modified with time. One of such trends is highly controversial and debatable- Extra—marital affair. Where on

one hand, it offers a person the assured liberty over his marital life, it endangers the Indian cultural ethics and opens door to countless social evils such as dowry, domestic violence, marital rapes, etc.

One of the major reasons behind failure of such globalized practices in India is its age-old traditions and their impact on the unconscious minds of every Indian. Looking at the western countries where having an affair outside one’s marriage, marriage is not considered a major institution involving one’s family and social status. Meanwhile in India, marriage is a spiritual institution involving not just the marriage partners, but also their families and dear ones. Having majority of Hindu population, marriage is a holy institution continuing for 7 lives of both the individuals. Hence, having extra marital affair poses a threat to such conceived beliefs and disrespects the very notion of a marriage.

 Considering harmful effects of an affair in marriage life, the Indian Penal Code had provided section 497 which prohibited extra-marital affairs and punished the accused. It stated:

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 Neither 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 an abettor.

As mentioned above, the 158 year old adultery law had various loopholes, despite being called women empowering’. Regardless of its validity during more than one and half century, it does not hold any logical importance in the twenty first century. Today, women are seeking education and employment opportunities, unlike the orthodoxical duty of housekeeping. They are competing in a globalised world and fighting for equal rights as men. This also includes taking equal responsibilities as men. Hence, holding only a man responsible for the extra-marital affair, and not the partner is unfair to the idea of equality between genders. Also, not to mention a women should not be subjected to any emotional or sexual relationship with another man, on the permission of her own husband. Another loophole that the law had was the love partner of the husband being unmarried. The existing law did not consider such relationship to be subjected to any prosecution. This gave unrestricted chance to the cheating partner to get into a relationship with an unmarried person and get away with it. In such cases, there was no punishment for the partner and it went against the very notion of punishing an abettor of extra-marital affair.Before scarping IPC section 497, following arguments were raised by the Supreme Court judges:

• The law seems to be pro-women but is anti-women in a grave ostensible way. As if with the consent of the husband, wife can be subjected to someone else desire. Thats not Indian morality

• Adultery should remain an offence. Diluting adultery law will impact the sanctity of marriages. Making adultery legal will hurt marriage bonds

• Each partner of the marriage has equal responsibility. Why should the woman take more load than the man? That is the reason we call it archaic

• Only a man can be a victim or accused/culprit under the existing reading of Section 497 of the IPC

• Husband is not the master of wife. Legal sovereignty of one sex over other sex is wrong

• Ancient notion of man being the perpetrator and woman being victim of adultery no longer holds good

• Besides consent, if the husband of a woman connives with another man for the latter to participate in sexual intercourse with the former’s wife, then there would be no adultery! This ‘connivance’ attaches a certain deviousness to the Act  With the expanding of globalisation, people all around the world have become more open to standing against their cultural values which hold no validity or importance in the present. They have started to accept their own liberty in choosing their lifestyles and prioritising their needs and wants; same goes with their marital lives. Statistics by the Unifies shows.
•  Global divorce rate is rising, being 12% in 1960 to becoming 44% in 2017. This
• shows an increment of 251.8% since 1960.
•  While Luxembourg stands 1 st in the countries having the highest divorce rates with
• 87% marriages turning into divorce, India has the lowest divorce rates of 1% in the
• world.
•  Comparing in terms of religions, Christians have the largest divorce rate of 37%,
• followed by Catholics with 36%, Buddhists with 30%, Jewish with 28%, Muslims
• with 20% and Hindus with 1%.
•  Infidelity contributes 18% to all the divorces filled worldwide and incompatibility
• contributes to 44%, followed by drinking and drugs contributing to 9% and
• physical/mental abuse leading to 6%.