PANJIM: The highest court in the country has ruled that “adultery is no more a crime” but that is not enough for someone to get a government job in Goa.
As per notification 1/1/2014-PER/2816, dated 27/09/2018 of the Department of Personnel, a person entering into a contract marriage with someone else despite having a living spouse is eligible for disqualification. This essentially means anybody committing bigamy will not be eligible for a government job.
The rules have been notified for the recruitment in Directorate of Fire and Emergency Services and so also the Goa Medical College.
Item no 4 of the rules – Disqualification, states, “No person who has entered into or contracted a marriage with a person having a spouse living or who, having a spouse living, has entered into or contracted a marriage with any person, shall be eligible for appointment to the service in government
departments.”
Further the notification reads that this may be provided that if government is satisfied if such marriage is permissible under the personal law applicable to such person and the other party to the marriage and that there are other grounds for so doing, exempt any person from the operation of this rule.
“If the government is of the opinion that it is necessary or expedient so to do, it may, by order, for reasons to be recorded in writing and in consultation with the Goa Public Service Commission, relax any of the provisions of these rules with respect to any class or category of persons,” the notification reads.
A top officer who spoke to Herald on condition of anonymity said, the rules are general and not specific. “These rules are general for all departments and not specific. They have been existing for years. There have been moves to change the recruitment rules but the files are gathering dust somewhere around,” he said.
The country’s Supreme Court on September 27 struck down a colonial-era law that prescribed a maximum imprisonment of five years to men for adultery. However, the offence still remains a valid ground for divorce.
A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court unanimously ruled to scrap Section 497, which deals with adultery, of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
