Supreme Court: In the matter where the widow of a Government Employee aggrieved by the order of the High Court of Punjab & Haryana at Chandigarh where it was directed that 50% of the pension be paid to the mother of the Government Employee, the Court set aside the impugned order and held that the parents of a married officer are not entitled to receive the pension amount as per the the Family Pension Scheme, 1964.
The Bench of A.R. Dave and L. Nageswara Rao, JJ took note of the Scheme and said that the mother of the deceased is not included in the definition of the term “family” for the reason that as per the provisions of sub-clause (f), parents of an unmarried officer would be a part of the family.
Explaining the difference between the position of law under the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 and the Family Pension Scheme, the Court said that as far as the Succession Law is concerned, it is true that the properties of a Hindu, who dies intestate would first of all go to the persons enumerated in class I of the schedule as per the provisions of Section 8 of the said Act and therefore and hence, the properties of the deceased in the case at hand would be divided among the respondent mother and the appellant wife, provided there is no other family member alive, who would fall within class 1 heirs, but position in this case, with regard to pension, is different.
The Court said that it is pertinent to note that in this case the pension is to be given under the provisions of the Scheme and therefore, only the person who is entitled to get the pension as per the Scheme would get it. The Court, hence, directed that the full amount of pension be paid to the widow of the Government employee. [Nitu v. Sheela Rani, 2016 SCC OnLine SC 1004, decided on 28.09.2016]
