Saroj Devi vs State of Punjab

Ajay Tewari, J.—The relief claimed in the present petition is two fold. Firstly the grant of special ex gratia and also extraordinary family pension. The brief facts are that the husband of the petitioner was working as a Clerk with the respondents. In the year 1997 he was on deputation with the PSEB. On 06.11.1997 he died in an accident on the Patiala-Chandigarh road in the evening. The petitioner was granted ordinary ex gratia payment and ordinary family pension. Thereafter he petitioner married her husband''s younger brother and by letter Annexure P-2 requested the respondents to transfer her family pension in the name of her two minor children.

As mentioned above, the prayer now is that since her husband died while on duty, she is entitled to extra ordinary pension and extra ordinary ex gratia. To support the claim that the husband of the petitioner died while on duty, learned counsel for the petitioner has relied upon letter Annexure R-1 which has been placed on record by the respondents. By this letter the PSEB had categorically stated that at the time of his death the husband of the petitioner was returning back in company with the Chairman of the PSEB and, therefore, his journey was treated as an official journey. Learned Addl. AG has argued that in the letter Annexure R-1 it is mentioned that at the time of the accident the petitioner''s husband was travelling in a private vehicle and consequently the respondents did not concur with the opinion of the PSEB that he was on official duty.

In my opinion merely because the husband of the petitioner was travelling in a private vehicle would not disentitle the petitioner for claiming that he was on official duty. The circumstances show that he was in fact on duty. Learned Addl. AG has accepted that if the petitioner had been travelling in a Government vehicle he would have been treated on duty. I put it to the learned Addl. AG that if while going in a Government vehicle the said vehicle breaks down and the employee takes a lift with another private vehicle and that vehicle meets with an accident, whether the employee should be treated to be not on duty merely because he was not travelling in official vehicle. I further put it to him that letter Annexure R-1 clearly mentions that the Chairman of the PSEB had also been allotted a house at Chandigarh and since the husband of the petitioner was accompanying the Chairman even though in a private vehicle, it was as a part of his duty and, therefore, I asked him whether in these circumstances there was any scope for the respondents to have disagreed with this unless there was a finding that this letter was either false or incorrect, learned Addl. AG has very fairly accepted these two propositions put to him. He has also accepted that there is no material to justify the fact that the letter Annexure R-1 does not present the correct position as it happened. Learned Addl. AG further argued that once the petitioner had transferred the family pension to her two children she would have no locus standi to file the writ petition. A perusal of letter Annexure P-2 reveals that the petitioner has only stated that since she has got married the family pension accruing to her should be given to her two children. Even otherwise as per rules if the two children become disentitled for the family pension it has to revert back to the petitioner. As regards the entitlement of the petitioner it is beyond any dispute that as per the Govt. rules if a widow marries the brother of the deceased husband her entitlement to family pension is not defeated. In view of all these facts this writ petition is allowed. The respondents are directed to grant the petitioner extra ordinary ex gratia and extra ordinary family pension. Let the necessary exercise to compute the amount and pay the arrears be concluded within three months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this letter failing which the petitioner would be entitled to claim the same with interest at the rate of 8% p.a. from the date/s the amount/s fell due till the date of payment.