Family pension eligibility requires a daughter to be widowed or divorced when her parent dies.

The applicant’s father, a retired Railway employee, died on 28 September 2010; her mother thereafter received family pension until her death on 18 May 2021.

The applicant had married in 1999.

After her husband went missing in 2011, a Family Court granted her judicial separation under Section 10 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, on 19 December 2018.

Her husband was traced in 2022 and died on 19 July 2022.

The applicant sought family pension as a dependent, widowed or divorced daughter under Rule 75(6)(iii) of the Railway Services (Pension) Rules, 1993.

The Railway authorities rejected her claim, and she challenged the rejection order dated 12 June 2025 before the Tribunal.

Whether the applicant was eligible for family pension as a divorced or widowed daughter under Rule 75(6)(iii) of the Railway Services (Pension) Rules, 1993.

Whether the rejection order dated 12 June 2025 was liable to be set aside as a non-speaking order.

Rule 75(6)(iii) of the Railway Services (Pension) Rules, 1993, read with Railway Board Circular RBE No. 99/2013 dated 26 September 2013, governs family-pension eligibility for widowed or divorced daughters.

The Tribunal applied the principle that the prescribed eligibility conditions must be met at the relevant parent’s death; a daughter whose husband is then alive does not qualify as a widow merely because she becomes widowed later.

A decree of judicial separation under Section 10 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, permits spouses to live separately but does not dissolve their marriage; dissolution occurs through a decree of divorce under Section 13.

The Tribunal relied on Smt. Rukaiya Khatoon v. Union of India and Others, Writ-A No. 19022 of 2023, decided 9 November 2023, which upheld the requirement that eligibility be established at the parent’s death.

The 2018 Family Court order was one of judicial separation, not divorce, and therefore did not make the applicant a divorced daughter.

Her husband remained alive until 19 July 2022, after her mother’s death on 18 May 2021; she therefore did not meet the widowed-daughter condition at the relevant time, notwithstanding her separation from him or her dependency on her parents.

Applying Rukaiya Khatoon, the Tribunal held that later widowhood could not cure the failure to satisfy the eligibility condition at the relevant parent’s death.

It also rejected the challenge to the order as non-speaking, finding that the authority had considered her claim under the applicable Rules and instructions.

It found no basis to interfere with the rejection order, dismissed the Original Application as devoid of merit, and made no order as to costs; associated miscellaneous applications were also disposed of.