No Maternal Family Pension For Woman If Divorced After Father's Death: Court

The Calcutta High Court has ruled that a daughter separated from her husband will not be entitled to share in the family pension of her maternal family in case the divorce happens after the death of her father.

The order, passed by a division bench of Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen on Monday, was uploaded on Tuesday morning.

The division bench was of the view that if the daughter was dependent on her father till the day of his death, she could be given a pension. But if, at the time of her father's death, she was dependent on her husband, she was not entitled to get the pension if she returned to her father's house after getting divorced.

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At the same time, the high court dismissed the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) verdict, which granted a pension for divorced women, and upheld the Centre's decision not to grant a pension to the petitioner.

In the present case, the petitioner's father retired from the Central government service in 1996 and passed away in 2003. The daughter, who was married at that time, claimed a pension at the time of her father's death. As she got divorced in 2016, she, due to financial hardship, applied for her father's pension again.

Accepting the daughter's application, the CAT ordered the Centre to grant her a pension.

The Centre moved the Calcutta High Court challenging the verdict, with its lawyer Fatik Chandra Das arguing that the daughter was married at the time of her father's death and was not dependent on her father's pension. Now she cannot suddenly ask for her father's pension for her own needs, Das held, adding that only the dependents of the family are eligible for pension.

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In the counter-argument, the daughter's lawyer, Chandreyi Alam, said that her client is currently in a financially weak situation, and as a daughter, she is entitled to her father's family pension.

The high court, however, observed that the daughter's divorce or case was not filed during her father's lifetime. As she was married at the time of her father's death, she will not get the pension.

In 2013, the Centre had directed that if the divorce occurs after the death of both parents, then the daughter will not get the family pension. But in a 2017 CAT order, it was said that if the divorce case is started while the father or mother is alive, the pension will be available. However, the daughter's income must be less than the monetary value of the pension.

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