Armed forces: Coping with changing social norms

Sexual behaviour norms recently knocked on the doors of the cultural and disciplinary space of the armed forces. A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court went on to clarify that armed forces personnel can be punished for adultery despite a 2018 judgement decriminalising adultery.

It did so by striking down Section 497 of the IPC on grounds of gender justice by treating a wife as the property of her husband and thus denying constitutional guarantees of dignity, liberty, privacy, and sexual autonomy.