Divorced Daughter Loses Family Pension Claim As Court Divorce Proceedings Began After Both Parents’ Deaths: CAT

In brief

The question

Whether the applicant qualified for family pension as a divorced daughter where she claimed that her divorce occurred during her parents’ lifetime, but instituted court proceedings only after both had died.

The court held

The Tribunal held that the applicant’s claim did not fall within the category covered by the 19 July 2017 Office Memorandum and found no sufficient ground to interfere with the impugned orders.

It also directed

The Original Application was dismissed, with no order as to costs; pending miscellaneous applications, if any, were also disposed of.

01Facts

The applicant’s father, a retired Group-D employee, died in 2006; family pension was thereafter paid to her mother, who died on 11 April 2010.

¶ 2

The applicant claimed family pension as a divorced daughter, asserting that her marriage had been dissolved under Muslim customs on 7 January 2007.

¶ 3, 7

She filed divorce proceedings in the Family Court in 2013, and an ex parte divorce decree was passed in 2015; a certificate issued by the Shahi Imam in 2017 recorded the asserted 2007 divorce date.

¶ 4–5, 7

The respondents rejected her claim. She challenged the rejection orders before the Tribunal.

¶ 1

02Issues

i.Whether the applicant qualified for family pension as a divorced daughter where she claimed that her divorce occurred during her parents’ lifetime, but instituted court proceedings only after both had died.

¶ 7–9

ii.Whether the applicant’s claim fell within the conditions specified in the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare Office Memorandum dated 19 July 2017.

¶ 8–9

03Law Applied

Rule 54 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, governs entitlement to family pension and requires that the claimant satisfy the applicable eligibility conditions.

¶ 5, 8–9

Under paragraph 6 of the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare Office Memorandum dated 19 July 2017, family pension may be granted to a divorced daughter where divorce proceedings were instituted before a competent court during the lifetime of the employee or pensioner, or their spouse, but the divorce took place after their death, provided the other Rule 54 conditions are met; in such cases, pension commences from the date of divorce.

¶ 8

Provisions in the judgment · 1 · Linked ones open on LawLens

Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 Section 19

04Reasoning

The Tribunal noted the applicant’s assertion that a customary divorce took place in 2007, but found that her Family Court proceedings were instituted in 2013—after the deaths of both parents—and the decree followed in 2015.

¶ 7, 9

The 2017 certificate recording the earlier divorce date did not bring the case within the 2017 Office Memorandum, because the proceedings had not been filed during either parent’s lifetime, as that memorandum requires.

¶ 9

The Tribunal also noted that no application concerning the applicant’s pension claim had been made during the period from 2007 to 2010, and that her claim was considered by the department only in 2016.

¶ 8

05Holding

The Tribunal held that the applicant’s claim did not fall within the category covered by the 19 July 2017 Office Memorandum and found no sufficient ground to interfere with the impugned orders.

¶ 9

The Original Application was dismissed, with no order as to costs; pending miscellaneous applications, if any, were also disposed of.

¶ 9–10

LawLens.CAT - ['Allahabad']

Original Court PDF