Court staff accused of demanding dowry seeks HC help to join duty

MUMBAI: An employee of the city civil court has approached the Bombay high court seeking directions to the administration to exempt him from giving a declaration that stated he did not demand a dowry from his wife.

He said there was no such precondition placed in the advertisement or statutory laws for the post that he was appointed for. Nilesh Pasarkar, the employee, was seeking directions from the division bench of justices AS Oka and SS Shinde to the in-charge principal judge of the Bombay City Civil and Sessions Court to withdraw the order that restrained him from joining duty as a typist clerk.

Pasarkar, who was represented by senior advocate Satish Talekar, told the court he was asked to give the declaration when he reported to join duty. He said that as such a provision is not there in the service rules for city civil court employees, it cannot be demanded from him.

According to the petition, Pasarkar submitted he had received an appointment order in 2017 . However, when he reported to join duty he was asked to submit the declaration form. The petition states that as Pasarkar’s wife had left home and lodged a complaint against him for demanding ₹5 lakh as dowry he was not in a position to provide the declaration form as it required the signatures of his wife and father-in-law.

The high court has asked Pasarkar to produce the application for exemption from filing the declaration that he had submitted to the administration.

It then posted the matter for hearing on December 3.