The High Court has issued a rule on the issue of extra-marital affairs, asking why the penalty for extra-marital affairs in Section 497 of the Penal Code should not be declared unconstitutional and illegal.
The bench comprising of Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir issued the rule on Monday after hearing a writ in this regard.
Barrister Anik R Haque and Advocate Ishrat Hasan stood for the writ.
The secretaries of the Law and Justice Division and Drafting Division have been made respondents for this writ, and have to answer this rule within three weeks.
Section 497 of the Penal Code holds: 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 Ishrat Hasan said the section is in contradiction to Articles 27, 28 and 32 of the Bangladesh constitution, and is arbitrary and discriminatory.
