Adultery law takes gender-neutral path
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Adultery law takes gender-neutral path

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The cabinet has acknowledged changes of wording in the Civil and Commercial Code to create equality in compensation claims for damages resulting from an act of adultery, said deputy government spokesman Anukul Prueksanusak.

The weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday made a formal acknowledgement of the changes in the law in line with a Constitutional Court ruling.

The changes pertain to paragraph two of Section 1523 of the code governing compensation claims for damages incurred by an act of adultery.

A research paper authored by Nattwat Baibua, vice presiding judge of the Surat Thani Provincial Court, said the section says that "the husband is entitled to claim compensation from the person who has wrongfully taken liberties with his wife in an adulterous manner and the wife is entitled to claim compensation from another woman who has openly shown her adulterous relations with the husband."

The judge pointed out that by definition of the law, the wife is not legally able to demand compensation from a man or men who engage in an adulterous affair with her husband. The section has created inequality between men and women, which defies Section 27 of the constitution stipulating that "men and women shall enjoy equal rights".

The ombudsman had asked the court to rule on the legality of Section 1523. In June 2024 the court ruled the Civil Code must enable wives to sue their husbands' lovers, whether male or female.

Mr Anukul on Wednesday said the imbalance has now been corrected with the words "husband" and "wife" replaced with the gender-neutral "spouse".

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