Janki Devi vs State Of Uttarakhand And Others

Vipin Sanghi, CJ

Leave to appeal is granted.

The present special appeal is directed against judgment dated 29.07.2022 passed by the learned Single Judge in WPSS No.601 of 2015. The learned Single Judge has allowed the writ-petition preferred by the respondent-Smt. Sunita, who is widow of the deceased-Suresh Kumar.

The husband of the respondent died on 04.08.2014. The appellant is the mother of the deceased. The respondent-Smt. Sunita claims family pension being the widow of the deceased. There are two children of the deceased, who are with the mother.

The petition was opposed by the appellant who sought intervention in the matter on the ground that she is the dependent mother of the deceased.

The learned Single Judge referred and placed reliance on Clause 3 of the U.P. Retirement Benefit Rules, 1961 which lays down the priority for disbursal of family pension and, according to the same, the eldest surviving widow, if the deceased was a male officer, is the top priority.

So far as the parents of the deceased are concerned, they are entitled to family pension if the persons enumerated in Clause (a) of Rule 3(4) are not eligible or available, provided the parents were dependent on the deceased-government servant.

In the light of the aforesaid, the learned Single Judge allowed the writ-petition preferred by the respondent-widow of the deceased-government servant.

The submission of the learned counsel for the appellant is that the learned Single Judge has placed reliance on the 1961 Rules framed by the State of U.P. whereas in the State of Uttarakhand on 13.04.2018, the Uttarakhand Retirement Benefits Act, 2018 was enacted. He has referred to Section 9 of the said Act which reads as follows:-

“9. Following members of family shall be eligible for allowing the family pension-

(1) wife/husband;

(2) Son less than the age of 25 years on the date of death with the restriction that if he starts earning livelihood then till the date of earning livelihood or the age of 25 years, whichever is earlier.

(3) Unmarried daughter, less than age of 25 years on the date of death with the restriction that if she starts earning livelihood or she gets married or till the completion of age of 25 years, whichever is earlier. Children mentioned in sub-section (2) and

(3) include step and legally adopted children before retirement.

(4) There shall be no restriction of age for disabled or mentally challenged children who are eligible for family pension under the provisions of this Act. Widow or divorcee daughter shall also be included in family.

If spouse or eligible children of the deceased Government servant in above mentioned categories are not available, then his mother/father, who were fully dependent on him, will be included in his family.

(5) There shall be the following conditions to make the unmarried daughters of Government employees/pensioners eligible even after attaining the age of twenty five years-

(a) family pension to unmarried daughter shall be sanctioned according to their date of birth and the younger daughter shall not be eligible for family pension till the elder daughter next to her is declared ineligible;

(b) unmarried daughters of more than twenty five years shall be eligible for family pension only when other eligible children under age of twenty years are not eligible for pension and there is no disabled child in family to receive family pension.”

Reading of the aforesaid provision again shows that the priority lies with the wife/husband of the deceased and only if the spouse or eligible children of the government servant are not available then his mother /father who were fully dependent on him would be included in his family.

Therefore, the position in law has substantially remained unchanged from what it was under the 1961 Rules framed by the State of U.P.

For the aforesaid reasons, we find no merits in the appeal. Accordingly, the present special is dismissed.

In sequel thereto, all pending applications stand disposed of.