Proverbs 4
23
Guard your heart above all else,
for it determines the course of your life.
24
Avoid all perverse talk;
stay away from corrupt speech.
25
Look straight ahead,
and fix your eyes on what lies before you.
26
Mark out a straight path for your feet;
stay on the safe path.
27
Don’t get sidetracked;
keep your feet from following evil.
Proverbs 5
3
For the lips of an immoral woman are as sweet as honey,
and her mouth is smoother than oil.
4
But in the end, she is as bitter as poison,
as dangerous as a double-edged sword.
5
Her feet go down to death;
her steps lead straight to the grave. [a]
6
For she cares nothing about the path to life.
She staggers down a crooked trail and doesn’t realise it.
7
So now, my sons, listen to me.
Never stray from what I am about to say:
8
Stay away from her!
Don’t go near the door of her house!
9
If you do, you will lose your honour
and will lose to merciless people all you have achieved.
10
Strangers will consume your wealth,
and someone else will enjoy the fruit of your labour.
1 Corinthians 6
18
Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does.
For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.
19
Don’t you realise that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in
you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,
20
for God bought you with a high price. So, you must honour God with your body.
2 Timothy 2
22
Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous
living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call
on the Lord with pure hearts.
Analysis
Eros (ἔρως) → Passion, fire, desire.
Present at the beginning of marriage—sparks, attraction, intimacy. But it’s
unstable if it’s the only fuel.
Philia (φιλία) → Friendship, respect, companionship.
Tied deeply to marriage—partners not just as lovers but as friends in a
shared journey.
Storge (στοργή) → Familial devotion.
Shows up when marriage grows into a family unit—care, responsibility,
everyday love.
Ludus (λῠδός) → Playful love.
Found in courtship and the lighter, youthful phases. Fun, exciting—but not
the bedrock of a marriage.
Pragma (πρᾶγμα) → Enduring, practical love.
The one closest to legal matrimony: about stability, compromise, long-
term commitment, and partnership.
Philautia (φῐλαυτῐ́ᾱ) → Self-love.
Essential for a healthy relationship. Respecting oneself is what allows
respect for one’s partner. But by itself, it isn’t “marriage.”
Agape (ἀγάπη) → Selfless love.
The highest form—self-giving, unconditional. Seen in religious or spiritual
views of marriage as a lifelong sacrament.
Conclusion
Pragma (πρᾶγμα) → The clearest match with matrimony, since marriage
in law is about endurance, partnership, and mutual stability.
Agape (ἀγάπη) → The idealised version, often tied to faith and sacrament
—selfless, lifelong devotion.
Philia + Storge → The daily forces that sustain a marriage once it begins.
Eros + Ludus → Powerful at the start, but not enough to carry the
structure in the long run.
Kamasutra
5 Other men's wives
Human nature, tendencies of men, tendencies of women, why
women lose interest and start looking elsewhere, avoiding
5.1 1–56
adultery, pursuing adultery, finding women interested in
extramarital sex
Finding many lovers, deploying messengers, the need for them
1–28,
and how to find good go-betweens, getting acquainted, how to
5.2 1–28,
make a pass, gifts and love tokens, arranging meetings, how to
–5 1–66,
discretely find out if a woman is available and interested,
1–37
warnings and knowing when to stop
Public women [prostitution], their life, what to expect and not,
5.6 1–48 how to find them, regional practices, guarding and respecting
them
Quran
Surah Yusuf Ayat 24
And she certainly determined [to seduce] him, and he would have inclined to her
had he not seen the proof of his Lord. And thus [it was] that We should avert
from him evil and immorality. Indeed, he was of Our chosen servants.
Brainstorm @SolutionfortheSoul
Adultery is not a “private lapse.” It is a breach that destabilizes marriage,
corrodes trust, and wounds society’s basic unit. Law cannot excuse it, nor treat
men and women differently. It must be criminalized—equally, firmly, without
gender bias. Adultery, when proved to cause concrete marital harm, is not a
purely private lapse but a breach of a voluntarily assumed fiduciary duty of
fidelity; State intervention—if gender-neutral and narrowly tailored—is justified to
protect spouses from demonstrable harm.
1. Equality Before Law (Article 14, Constitution of India)
o To exempt women from liability (as under Section 497 IPC
historically) is to infantilise them, treating them as passive
participants without agency.
o Modern jurisprudence affirms that agency implies accountability. If
adultery destabilises the family unit, culpability cannot be
gendered.
Any statute that immunises one sex or treats the wife as the
husband’s chattel is per se arbitrary; liability, defences, standing to
complain, and penalties must be identical across genders and
sexual orientations.
Classification must be tethered to a real difference—here, “married
persons who, by deceit or clandestine intercourse, inflict
measurable harm (mental cruelty, economic loss, health risk) on the
spouse,” not to sex or marital power hierarchies.
Procedural posture must be even-handed: complaint by the
aggrieved spouse only, cognisance by the court after pre-complaint
counselling/mediation, and non-custodial first-offence penalties, to
satisfy proportionality.
2. Marriage as Contract + Sacrament
o From the legal angle (pragma), marriage is an enduring concord
grounded in mutual fidelity.
o From the spiritual angle (agape), it is unconditional self-giving.
Adultery ruptures both — hence the State has a compelling interest
to preserve this bond.
Marriage is a civil contract with reciprocal duties (fidelity, non-
cruelty, support); its breach has public spillovers (domestic
instability, child welfare, economic dispossession), permitting
calibrated criminal law where civil remedies are inadequate.
Because duties are reciprocal, both spouses and any outside
participant who knowingly abets the breach are equally answerable,
eliminating sex-based asymmetry.
3. Comparative Jurisdictions
o In nations such as the Philippines and certain Middle Eastern
jurisdictions, adultery is severely punished to safeguard familial
integrity.
o India, while modern, cannot ignore the sociological centrality of
marriage in its societal fabric.
Comparative systems that criminalise adultery are instructive, but
the Indian model must conform to Puttaswamy proportionality:
legality (clear statute), legitimate aim (protect spouse/children),
necessity (civil tools insufficient), and balancing (narrow tailoring +
safeguards).
Proverbs & Corinthians: Adultery not only dishonours the spouse but
corrodes the self — “a sin against one’s own body.”
Quran (Surah Yusuf): Treats adultery as spiritual dereliction, a path toward
destruction.
Greek Lexicon: Betrayal of pragma (the contract) and agape (the
sacrament).
Cross-cultural ethics condemn adultery; in constitutional terms, this
translates to a secular harm principle (injury to spouse/children), not the
enforcement of religious morality.
Thus, all moral compasses — East and West, classical and modern — converge
adultery is not a private peccadillo, but a public wrong.
To criminalise effectively while preserving constitutional values, threefold
strategies can be proposed:
1. Gender-Neutral Penal Statute
o Draft a new Section (post-497) criminalising adultery irrespective of
gender.
o Prescribe proportional penalties (fine + imprisonment) for both
participants.
Enact a gender-neutral offence of “Aggravated Marital Breach by
Adultery” punishable only when:
(a) the accused knew the other was married;
(b) conduct caused provable serious harm (e.g., medically certified
mental cruelty, economic dispossession, STI transmission, or
violation of a court-ordered restraint); and
(c) prosecution is initiated by the aggrieved spouse within a short
limitation period.
First offence: non-custodial sentence (fine, community service,
mandated counselling); custody reserved for repeat/aggravated
cases (coercion, deception about identity/health, exploitation of
authority).
2. Civil-Criminal Hybrid Remedies
o Introduce Restitutional Damages: adulterers must compensate the
aggrieved spouse (loss of consortium, emotional distress).
o Criminal sanction + civil liability = deterrence + justice.
Statutorily recognise restitutional damages (loss of consortium,
therapy costs, relocation costs), interim support, and injunctions
against continued contact during proceedings.
Criminal liability attaches only if the civil decree/undertaking is
wilfully breached, converting persistent harm into penal wrong.
3. Preventive Legal Innovations
o Marital Fidelity Contracts: Spouses may register fidelity clauses,
breach of which attracts statutory consequences.
o Technological Safeguards: Mandate digital monitoring of
matrimonial fidelity apps? (innovative but controversial).
o Community Mediation Boards: Before prosecution, parties must
attempt resolution, ensuring the law isn’t weaponised frivolously.
Mediation-first with trauma-informed counsellors; sealed
proceedings to protect dignity; evidence limited to voluntary
communications/lawfully obtained records; ban on general
surveillance.
Court-endorsed fidelity undertakings (voluntary, revocable) can be
registered; breach triggers civil contempt/penalties, with penal
escalation only for wilful, repeated breach.
Public Accountability Measures: Just as corruption convictions are notified,
habitual adulterers could face public naming in legal bulletins (deterrence
through social consequence).
Mandatory Counselling + Rehabilitation: Recognise adultery as both a
moral failing and a psychosocial issue; integrate reform with retribution.
Enhanced Sentences for Repeat Offenders: Akin to habitual offender
statutes.
Mandatory counselling for parties upon first substantiated breach;
rehabilitative programmes prioritised over incarceration.
No “public naming and shaming”; instead, sealed conviction records
accessible to courts/employers only where trust/conflict-of-interest
is material (e.g., child-care, counselling roles).
Enhanced sentences only for repeat, aggravated offenders
(coercion, exploitation, deception about health/identity).
Adultery is theft of trust. If property theft is punishable, how can betrayal of
fidelity be ignored? To preserve marriage as society’s crucible, law must
criminalise it — gender-neutral, proportionate, enforceable. Adultery proven to
cause quantifiable harm is a breach of trust akin to civil fraud; where civil relief
fails to deter ongoing injury, measured penal consequences are justified—but
only under gender-neutral, harm-based, and privacy-respecting terms.
