‘SC Verdict To Promote Gender Equality’

Bhubaneswar: The Supreme Court’s recent verdict on the Adultery Law has encouraged gender equality, prominent lawyer and human rights activist Dr. Lenin Mohanty said on Wednesday.

“The word sex has biological connotations, but gender has psychological and by no means the woman can be looked at as an inferior being,” Dr. Mohanty said while addressing a ‘Youth Connect’ programme attended by NSS volunteers at the SOA (Deemed to be University) here.

The programme was jointly conducted by SOA and Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL).

Dr. Mohanty said that woman was not a commodity and the apex court, in the historic verdict, had made it clear that “the husband is not the master of a wife” while scrapping Section 497 of the IPC, a 158-year-old law, which deemed adultery as a punishable offence. “The verdict did not mean that it approved of adultery as is being discussed in the media,” he said.

“If you know the law, you can fight gender inequality,” Dr. Mohanty told a gathering of around 300 students drawn from four different institutions, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (SPS), SOA National Institute of Law (SNIL), Institute of Business and Computer Studies (IBCS) and SUM Nursing College (SNC), run by SOA.

Dr. Jyoti Ranjan Das, Dean (Students’ Welfare) and NSS Program Coordinator Dr. Nachiketa Sharma addressed the gathering, which was presided over by the Dean, SNC, Dr. Pravati Tripathy. The NSS Nodal Officer, Dr. Rita Prusty proposed the vote of thanks.

The Dean of IBCS, Prof. Anup Samantaray, Dean of SNIL, Prof. Prabir Patnaik, Program Officers Dr. Sovan Patnaik, Dr. Rajaram Mohapatra, Dr. Itishree Mishra, Saswati Jena,  Madhusmita Nayak, Kasturi Mohanty and Alaka Samantaray were also present.

The students also presented three street plays on the subject.