SC judgment monumental, says lawyer Kaleeswaram Raj

New Delhi: Lawyer Kaleeswaram Raj who spearheaded the legal battle on adultery described the Supreme Court judgment as a monumental one. True, it apparently redefines the husband-wife relation or man-woman relation.

He said it has also radically altered the state-citizen relation in the matters of intimate personal decisions. The judgment has categorically said that the state has no legitimate interest in punishing citizens for matrimonial or personal aberrations. The SC by striking down the colonial provisions has acted as the guardian of the Constitution.

The judgment has scaled up the level of individual liberty in the country. It has reduced the state’s police power in the matter of intimate personal choices. It upholds the dignity of not just men or women but of citizens as a whole. We are now among the galaxy of more than 70 modern democracies where citizens are not punished for their moral wrongs.

According to the scheme of provisions, even in a vexatious litigation where a woman is tag-ged with a man, by her own husband, she cannot defend herself, as she is not a party to such proceedings. Massive misuse of the adultery provision will come to end with this judgment.

Very often, many families are perpetually and irreparably broken on account of prosecution for adultery, some of which are even malicious. Therefore, the judgment will carry out a rescue operation. in thousands of families, in future. The court has also struck a fine balance on the topic by holding that adultery will remain as a ground for divorce in accordance with the personal laws in the country, he added.