Rajasthan HC: Extra-marital affair not ground for taking action against govt staff

The Rajasthan High Court has ruled that the state government cannot initiate departmental proceedings against a government employee for being involved in an extra-marital relationship.

The single-judge Jaipur bench of the court was hearing a writ petition filed by two police

— an inspector and a woman constable — who were suspended in March 2001 for allegedly being involved in an extra-marital affair. The couple, as well as the woman’s child, were also directed to take a DNA test. The court had stayed the suspension order and departmental proceedings till the disposal of the writ petition.

In his order on March 7, Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma ruled that the government ’s action was illegal. “This court is of the opinion that an act of relationship entered by an individual with another female or male, as the case may be, while his/ her spouse is alive, would be an act amounting to adultery and would be considered as an immoral act so far as the Indian society is concerned… The same would, however, not be a ground for initiating departmental proceedings by the employer and it be best left for the person who may be affected individually to take remedy and proceed against him/ her in civil law or for initiating divorce proceedings,” he said.