PUTRAJAYA: Criminalising men for enticing a married woman is unconstitutional, the Federal Court ruled today.
A five member bench apex court led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Miamun Tuan Mat made the ruling after allowing a 53-year-old businessman's application to challenge a provision in the Penal Code.
The applicant argued that Section 498 of the Penal Code violated women's right to equality before the law as the section only accorded husbands the right to initiate criminal proceedings against a person who interfered in their marriage.
He also argued that the provision was discriminatory against women in marriages because it treated women as their husband's property and was open to abuse by husbands.
The man was charged in the Petaling Jaya Magistrate's Court in 2020 for enticing a married woman in an apartment in Selangor in 2018 after a police report was lodged by the woman's husband.
Under Section 498 of the Penal Code, the man can be sentenced to two years in jail or fined or both if convicted.
The Shah Alam High Court in March this year had allowed the man's application to refer to the constitutional question to the Federal Court.
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