Excluding Divorced Daughter From Family Pension Violates Article 14: Madhya Pradesh High Court

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has held that a divorced daughter cannot be excluded from the definition of family under the MP Civil Services Pension Rules, 1976 and therefore denying family pension benefits to them would amount to discrimination and violate Article 14 of the Constitution of India. The bench of Justice Vishal Dhagat held, "if divorce daughters are not included within definition of family then fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14 of the Constitution of India shall be violated as there is no difference between unmarried daughter, married daughter or divorcee daughter". The petitioner, Smt Jyoti, is a divorced daughter of late Shanker Lal, who served as District Commandant in the Home Guards Department and retired on April 30, 2001. After the death of his wife in 2017, the retired employee sought nomination of his daughter for family pension benefits. However, the authorities rejected the request through an order of December 16, 2021. The State, however, held that a divorced daughter does not fall within the statutory definition of family under Rule 44(5) of the Pension Rules and therefore could not be treated as eligible for family pension. The counsel for the Petitioner relied upon an Office Memorandum of September 11, 2013, issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. The memorandum clarified that dependent divorced daughters are entitled to a family pension, subject to the fulfilment of conditions relating to dependency and income. The government advocate appearing for the State argued that the petitioner's case was duly considered by the impugned order and the petitioner was not found to be dependent per Rule 45 of the Rules 1976. The court examined Rule 44 of the 1976 Rules, noting that it includes the spouse of the government servant, sons, including stepsons and adopted sons, unmarried daughters, including step and adopted daughters, widowed daughters, including step and adopted daughters, father, including adoptive parents, mother, brother below age of 18 years, including step brothers, unmarried and widowed sisters including step sisters, married daughters and children of predeceased son. The court noted that the divorced daughter was not included in the definition of family. However, the court opined that there is no difference between an unmarried, married or divorced daughter and therefore if divorced daughters are not included in the definition of family, the same would violate Article 14 of the Constitution. The bench thus held, "Therefore, divorcee daughter is also required to be treated equally with daughters mentioned in Rule 44(5) of Rules of 1976 otherwise it would violate rights under Article 14 of the Constitution of India". In view of the aforesaid discussion, the court quashed the impugned order and directed reconsideration of the case. The court further directed that if the respondents found the divorced daughter to be dependent, then the family pension should be granted. Case Title: Smt Jyoti Shrivastav v State of Madhya Pradesh, WP-1666-2022For Petitioner: Advocate Naveen Dubey For State: Government Advocate Ved Prakash Tiwari Click here to read/download the Order

Excluding Divorced Daughter From Family Pension Violates Article 14: Madhya Pradesh High Court

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Excluding Divorced Daughter From Family Pension Violates Article 14: Madhya Pradesh High Court

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