The law is an ass

When will we stop hearing these homilies about the 'sanctity of marriage'?

Adultery is a great subject for books and movies. It bristles with possibilities — of love, lust, jealousy, fear, rage and so on. And it has huge potential for drama — for tragedy or even the darkly tragi-comic (think Gone Girl). In India, though, adultery, looked at from the legal standpoint, verges on comedy. Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, the law that deals with adultery, is so astonishingly absurd that it would be hilarious if it weren’t outrageous. 

Section 497 criminalises adultery — a legal stricture that most civilised countries dispensed with years ago. It also puts the