Take govt staff involving in bigamy to task, says court

Dismissing a petition filed by a woman R Thenmozhi, who is the second wife of a deceased police officer seeking retirement benefits and other terminal monetary benefits of her husband, Justice SM Subramanian said as per the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Pension Rules, 1978, a government servant is bound to nominate the spouse alone for the purpose of grant of family pension.

The Judge directed the Secretary, Personal and Administrative Reforms Department, Government of Tamil Nadu to issue guidelines as well as the procedures and instructions to be followed in such cases.

The name of the spouse of a public servant should be entered in respective service records after ascertaining the genuineness of the same and also after conducting proper verification in order to protect the interest of the legally wedded spouse of the public servant, the Judge said.

He ordered the Secretary to enter a ‘clause’ in the instructions by stating that in the event of identifying any misconduct or the offence of bigamous marriage, departmental disciplinary proceedings would be initiated and a criminal case also would be registered under the provisions of the IPC.

The Judge observed that in many number of cases, illegal marriages were not identified, when the public servants were in service and in most of the cases, the counter claims were arising only after the retirement or in the event of the deaths of public servants.

Though the conduct rules states that bigamous marriages were misconduct and an offence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the authorities of various departments across the State were absolutely insensitive towards such issues, he said.

The Judge also directed the authorities competent as well as the higher officials in the police department, on receipt of complaints or information of any such offence of bigamous marriage, must immediately act and initiate action against the public servants.

Bigamous marriages could be brought down to the extent possible, if swift action was taken against erring public servants, the Judge said.