Matrimonial Dispute Is No Grounds To Deny Family Pension To Wife Upon Husband's Death: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has made it clear that a wife cannot be denied family pension upon her husband's death, merely because they had an ongoing matrimonial dispute.A division bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Madhu Jain observed,“The very fact that the petitioner had filed an application seeking maintenance from the deceased, shows that there were some matrimonial disputes between the petitioner and the deceased. For the same, until the same had resulted in a divorce, the grant of family pension to the petitioner could not have been denied.”Succinctly put, Petitioner's husband passed away in 2009 but she moved an application seeking family pension only in 2013.As the Union government rejected her claim, she contended that she was the legally wedded wife of the deceased and there was no justification to deny her the family pension, in absence of a valid claim from any other person.Though the Central Administrative Tribunal directed release of family pension to her, the same was however only from the date of filing the application.Petitioner claimed she is entitled to family pension from the date of the death of her husband.Union cited Petitioner's matrimonial dispute and contended that the deceased had not mentioned Petitioner's name in the list of his family members. “We are afraid the above submissions cannot deny the right of the petitioner to the grant of the family pension,” the High Court said.Respondent had also contended that Petitioner was not even aware of her husband's death and her claim for pension was belated.The High Court however held,“merely because there was a delay on the part of the petitioner to move an appropriate application seeking release of the family pension, would not deny her the relief of the same from the date of death of the deceased.”As such, the Court held that Petitioner is entitled to grant of family pension from the date of her husband's death and the arrears of the same shall be paid by the respondent with interest, within four months.Appearance: Mr. H. P. Chakravorti, Advocate for Petitioner; Mr. R. Mishra and Mr. Mukesh Tiwari, Advocates for RespondentCase title: Soni Devi v. Union of IndiaCitation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1038Case no.: W.P.(C) 4501/2018Click here to read order

Matrimonial Dispute Is No Grounds To Deny Family Pension To Wife Upon Husband's Death: Delhi High Court

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