Women Are Not 'Chattel,' Says India's Supreme Court In Striking Down Adultery Law : NPR

"India's Supreme Court has struck down a colonial-era law that made adultery illegal, calling it arbitrary and saying it is unconstitutional because it "treats a husband as the master."

Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code makes it a crime for a man to have intercourse with another man's wife "without the consent or connivance of that man."

The law gives a husband exclusive right to prosecute his wife's lover – and does not grant a wife power to do the same. It does not penalize the woman, nor any married man who has sex with an unmarried woman...."