Eligible children cannot receive family pension concurrently with a surviving spouse.

Late P.N. Singh Sharma, an employee of Gun Carriage Factory, retired on 31 July 2004 and died on 21 March 2014. His widow, Applicant No. 1, survived him.

Before his death, he had sought to have his daughter, Applicant No. 2, added to his pension papers. After his death, the daughter applied for 50% of the family pension.

The respondents rejected the claim, stating that her name was not recorded in the family statement and that family pension could not be paid to more than one family member at the same time. The applicants sought an order requiring the respondents to divide the pension equally between the widow and the daughter.

Whether the daughter was entitled to receive 50% of the family pension concurrently with the deceased employee’s surviving widow.

Whether the family pension could be divided between the widow and daughter while the widow’s entitlement continued.

The Tribunal applied Rule 54(8) of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, under which family pension is not payable to more than one family member at the same time and, where the deceased employee is survived by a widow or widower, pension is payable to that spouse in the first instance; an eligible child’s entitlement arises thereafter, subject to the Rules.

The Tribunal also relied on Master Utsav Singh v. Govt. of NCT of Delhi & Ors. (decided 15 May 2026), which it described as holding that a child’s entitlement is deferred until the surviving spouse’s entitlement ceases under the Rules.

The Tribunal found that the deceased employee was survived by his legally wedded wife, whose statutory entitlement to family pension remained in force.

Under Rule 54(8), the daughter could not claim a simultaneous share merely because she was the deceased employee’s child. The Tribunal noted that no specific exception or special provision had been established to support her claim to 50% of the pension during the widow’s lifetime.

It dismissed the Original Application, with no order as to costs.