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Delhi HC quashes dismissal of IPS officer on bigamy charges, Rajasthan Govt yet to respond

By IndianMandarins- 16 Apr 2021
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New Delhi (16.04.2021): Immediately after receiving the copy of the judgment from the Delhi High Court, IPS officer Pankaj Chaudhary Thursday reported to the state government and gave an Online Joining Representation to Chief Secretary Niranjan Arya (IAS:1989:RJ), Principal Secretary, Personnel Hemant Gera (IAS), and State DGP ML Lathar. However, Chaudhary is still awaiting an order from the State Government. 

It may be underlined that the Delhi High Court quashed an order of the Rajasthan Government dismissing the 2009-batch IPS officer Pankaj Chaudhary on the charge of bigamy even though there was no complaint from his first wife.

Dwelling at length about the evolution of the ethics of marriage over the years,  a division bench of Justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Amit Bansal said in its March 19 ruling that what was considered unethical in 1968 was no longer unethical today and definitely not of such severity as in 1968. The justices referred to 1968 because it was then that the All India Services (Conduct) Rules were framed.

Upholding the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) decision  to turn down the dismissal of the Rajasthan cadre IPS officer concerned, the HC, in its ruling which was made public a few days ago, pointed out “though living with another woman while having subsisting marriage may have been an absolute no no till about 20 years back, in today’s time it is viewed differently.”

The HC reasoned that an act of bigamy cannot always lead to the removal of a government servant from service. It said that a lot of family affairs which were earlier a matter of public debate were now kept within the private domain.

The HC pointed out that, though undoubtedly the act committed by the officer is punishable under Section 494 IPC (the provision prohibiting a person from marrying another person during the lifetime of a husband or wife, the same can be enforced only on the complaint of some person aggrieved by the offence which in the case would have been his wife.

“It is nowhere on record that there was any such complaint. So was not even the charge against the [officer]. The ethical standard of an act of bigamy has to be viewed in this light and depending on the facts and circumstances of each case,” the court ruled.

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