Patna High Court: The Bench of Ahsanuddin Amanullah, J. quashed criminal proceeding filed in the year 2013 under Section 497 of the Penal Code, 1860 against a person accused of adultery, in view of Supreme Court’s decision in Joseph Shine v. Union of India, (2019) 3 SCC 39.
Petitioner herein had filed a complaint case against the opposite party 2 alleging adultery with his wife, wherein the Chief Judicial Magistrate issued summons under Section 497 of the Penal Code, 1860. The said order of cognizance was challenged by opposite party 2 before the Sessions Judge by way of a criminal revision petition, and the order of cognizance was set aside. Aggrieved thereby, the instant application was filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 praying for setting aside of order dated 22-09-2014.
Counsel for the parties Mr Prabhu Narayan Sharma (for petitioner), Mr Md. Arif (for State) and Mr Saket Tiwary (for opposite party 2) submitted that the aforesaid issue was no more res integra for the reason that a Constitution Bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court had held Section 497 IPC to be unconstitutional and has also declared Section 198 CrPC, which deals with the procedure for filing complaint in relation to an offence of adultery, as unconstitutional.
In view of the above, the Court held that cognizance against the opposite party 2 under Section 497 IPC could not be sustained. Thus, the entire criminal proceeding arising out of complaint case was quashed.[Devraj Dev v. State of Bihar, 2019 SCC OnLine Pat 431, Order dated 02-04-2019]
