Supreme Court ties civil servant's private violence to service misconduct

The Supreme Court has ruled that serious misconduct by a civil servant in his private life, including violence against his wife, can amount to misconduct in service even when the act is committed outside office hours and has no direct connection with official duties.

The court made the ruling while dismissing a petition filed by an employee of the Intelligence Bureau, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

The judgment holds that an acquittal in a criminal case does not by itself invalidate departmental proceedings against the same employee. A criminal court and a departmental authority are asking different questions, and a verdict in the first does not settle the second.

The petition had challenged disciplinary action taken against the IB employee. APP's report did not name the employee, give the date of the incident, or describe the complaint that set off the departmental proceedings. It also did not name the bench that heard the case.

The court framed the test as serious misconduct in private life. Conduct of that kind, it held, can be weighed by the employing department even though it took place at home and had nothing to do with the officer's official work.

The ruling speaks of private misconduct generally and cites violence against a wife as the conduct before the court in this case. It does not rest on whether a criminal court had convicted the employee.

With the petition dismissed, the employee's challenge to the departmental action failed, and the proceedings against him stand.

The judgment addresses a question that arises whenever a department moves against an employee over something done away from the office: how far the employer may reach into a person's conduct at home, and whether the outcome of a police case decides the matter. The court's answer is that the departmental route survives an acquittal in court.