BIGAMY BY GOVERNMENT SERVANT IS MISCONDUCT

BIGAMY BY GOVERNMENT SERVANT IS MISCONDUCT

TANISHA SHARMA 

BACKGROUND

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on 26 July 2019 held that bigamy by government servant is misconduct. A retired railway employee who committed an act of bigamy, assuming that his first wife was dead since he had not seen her for seven years, has been found guilty of misconduct, as per service rules, by the Karnataka High Court and held liable for 50 per cent reduction in pension amount. However, considering he has retired and solely dependent on the pension amount, the court reduced the punishment from five years to three years, a period already undergone by him. Observing that it is an offense under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the court also asked the state government to initiate disciplinary action against public servants committing bigamy and register criminal cases against them.

The Tamil Nadu Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department has been asked to initiate action and file criminal cases against those employees who have more than one spouse. An order was passed by the Madurai bench of the Madras high court. The court passed the order on a petition filed by R Thenmozhi from Madurai, the second wife of a policeman who died earlier. She was allegedly seeking pension benefits equivalent to that provided to the first wife of the deceased policeman.

 In her complaint, she stated that she and the policeman got married in the year 1982 itself. She claimed that years after being married to him, she came to know that the policeman had been previously married and had three children from the previous marriage. Later, she also approached the Usilampatti police station, but soon after, her husband assured her that he would take care of both the families.

After the death of the policeman in 2011, she did not receive any of the monetary benefits provided by the Tamil Nadu Government and hence requested the court to split his pension and other benefits between her and his first wife.

CURRENT ISSUE (BIGAMY BY GOVERNMENT SERVANT IS MISCONDUCT)

Rejecting Thenmozhi’s plea, Justice SM Subramaniam directed the Secretary to Personnel and Administrative Reforms department to issue consolidated instructions in this regard. The names of spouses of public servants should be entered in their service records after proper verification in order to protect the interest of legally wedded spouses. The court further directed the Secretary to enter a clause in the instructions stating that in the event of any misconduct or offence of bigamous marriage being detected, departmental proceedings would be initiated and a criminal case would be registered under the provisions of the IPC.

 The bench observed that there is no scope for the presumption that the wife would be dead, in case if she is not seen for about seven years. For the purpose of the said presumption law provides that the husband has to approach the civil court seeking a declaration that the policeman’s wife is dead. Instead of approaching the civil court and obtaining a decree, the respondent has presumed that she must have died and had contracted a second marriage, which on the face of it is misconduct. Under these circumstances, the order of the tribunal is to be set aside since the reason assigned is contrary to law and face.

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CONCLUSION

During the judgment, Justice Subramaniam observed that though the rules state that bigamy is an offense and amounts to misconduct under Section 494 of the Indian Penal Code, the government authorities are insensitive towards such issues. He also observed that this insensitivity results in denial of livelihood to women who marry government employees as second wives. The judge also ordered the departments concerned to verify the documents of their staff properly.

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