HC issues rule on legality of adultery punishment
STAFF REPORTER, Dhaka
The High Court yesterday issued a rule asking the government to explain why the section 497 of the penal code-1860 that specified the definition and punishment of extra-marital affairs should not be declared illegal.
In response to a writ petition, the HC bench comprising Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and Justice Iqbal Kabir asked the law and drafting secretaries of the law ministry to reply to the rule within three weeks.
Section 497 of the Penal Code says, 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 either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both. In such case the wife shall not be punished as an abettor. Advocate Israt Hasan, who filed the writ petition on February 11 with the HC, told reporters yesterday that section 497 of the Penal Code is contradictory with the Articles 27, 28 and 32 of the Constitution. Barrister Anik R Haque appeared for the petitioner while attorney general Mahbubey Alam with the assisted of deputy attorney general Kazi Jinat Haque represented the state during the hearing on the petition.
