In this case, Radharani had married her brother-in-law while her sister was still married to him.
Justice AN Venugopala Gowda noted in his judgement that Radharani had denied having knowledge of the first and second marriage of her husband on the date of her wedding and “for a long time after her marriage”.
But since she has not denied that her sister was already married to the same man and was living with him, the government was right in rejecting her claim for the post of civil judge, Justice Gowda said.
Radharani had married Gopala B Patil in August 2002, and a male child was born.
Patil had previously married Shobha B Lagade, and had three children with her. The marriage later ended in divorce and he later married Mathura, the elder sister of Radharani and had three children with her. Mathura is still living with Patil.
In 2006, the government issued a notification inviting applications for posts of civil judges. The post had a payscale of Rs 9,000- 14,500. Radharani was successful in both the written exam and the viva voce test and when a list of the selected candidates — 232 of them — was published, she had secured 41st rank.
