Moral Turpitude - Indian Laws - General

Moral Turpitude means As Per Black s Law Dictionary (8th Edn., 2004): Conduct that is contrary to justice, honesty, or morality. In the area of legal ethics, offenses involving moral turpitude such as fraud or breach of trust. Also termed moral depravity. Moral turpitude means , in general, shameful wickedness- so extreme a departure from ordinary standards of honest, good morals, justice, or ethics as to be shocking to the moral sense of the community. It has also been defined as an act of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which one person owes to another, or to society in general, contrary to the accepted and customary rule of right and duty between people. In Pawan Kumar v. State of Haryana and Anr. AIR 1996 SC 3300, this Court has observed as under: `Moral turpitude is an expression which is used in legal as also societal parlance to describe conduct which is inherently base, vile, depraved or having any connection showing depravity. The aforesaid judgment in Pawan Kumar (supra) has been considered by this Court again in Allahabad Bank and Anr. v. Deepak Kumar Bhola (1997) 4 SCC 1; and placed reliance on Baleshwar Singh v. District Magistrate and Collector AIR 1959 All. 71, wherein it has been held as under: The expression `moral turpitude is not defined anywhere. But it means anything done contrary to justice, honesty, modesty or good morals. It implies depravity and wickedness of character or disposition of the person charged with the particular conduct. Every false statement made by a person may not be moral turpitude, but it would be so if it discloses vileness or depravity in the doing of any private and social duty which a person owes to his fellow men or to the society in general. If therefore the individual charged with a certain conduct owes a duty, either to another individual or to the society in general, to act in a specific manner or not to so act and he still acts contrary to it and does so knowingly, his conduct must be held to be due to vileness and depravity. It will be contrary to accepted customary rule and duty between man and man. SUSHIL KUMAR SINGHAL VERSUS THE REGIONAL MANAGER, PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK - 2010 (8) TMI 1098 - SUPREME COURT