Married policeman's live-in relationship amounts to violation of service rules: Jharkhand High Court upholds dismissal

The Jharkhand High Court upheld the dismissal of a police constable who was found to be in a live-in relationship with another woman while being married.

The petitioner, a former constable in the Jharkhand Armed Police, had challenged his dismissal from service on charges of bigamy.

The High Court said though the policeman was acquitted in the rape case lodged by the live-in partner, it cannot be a ground for quashing his dismissal from service.

“It is unbecoming of a police personnel who was in live-in-relation with another lady other than wife and amounts to violation of rules whereby the service conditions of the petitioner are governed,” the Court said.

After the police official’s live-in partner lodged a rape case against him in 2017, a regular departmental proceeding was initiated and he was suspended in 2018. Later in 2021, he was dismissed from service.

Challenging the dismissal, his counsel told the Court that the constable could have been dismissed from service only if there was a charge of bigamy. In this case, the police officer was only in a live-in relationship. Therefore, the counsel contended that the constable's dismissal should be set aside.

However, the State argued that the constable was found to be in an “illicit relationship” despite being already married. This was a violation of the Jharkhand Service Code and Jharkhand Police Manual.

The Court observed that the police official himself admitted that he was in a live-in-relationship with a woman other than his wife.

The Court thus refused to interfere with the penalty order passed against the constable.