The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently rejected a widow’s plea seeking release of family pension in her favour on account of the death of her husband, who was a government employee.
The widow was the second wife of the deceased and her application for the family pension had been rejected by the authorities on the grounds that the deceased had married her without giving divorce to his first wife and without obtaining the permission of the government.
The petitioner and the deceased belonged to the tribal community and the widow alleged that a divorce between her deceased husband and his first wife had taken place as per tribal customs and traditions which have legal sanctity.
Moreover, the widow’s counsel argued that Rule 47 (7)(a)(i) of the M.P. Civil Services Pension Rules, 1976 provides that where the family pension is payable to more widows than one, the family pension shall be paid to the widows in equal share, therefore, even if, the other woman was deemed to be first surviving wife of the deceased, family pension was to be paid in equal proportion between the said first wife and the petitioner.
However, the respondent parties submitted before the court that the rejection of the pension was made on the basis of the fact that the deceased had a first marriage with another woman whose name was mentioned in his service book and even in the pension case, joint photographs of the deceased and the other woman were affixed.
The counsel for the respondents argued that the deceased was not entitled to maintain two wives and an affidavit sworn in before the notary, by the said first wife, as was presented by the petitioner widow, was not a proof of divorce between her and the deceased.
The high court noted that as per M.P. Civil Services (Conduct) Rules 1965, irrespective of the personal laws, no government servant is entitled to contract second marriage without first obtaining the permission of the government.
“Sub-rule 1 of Rule 22 of the Rules, 1965 provides that no government servant, who has a wife living shall contract another marriage without first obtaining the permission of the government, notwithstanding that such subsequent marriage is permissible under the personal law for the time being applicable to him,” the court underscored.
The court noted that the petitioner woman had produced no such permission on record.
“Thus, the petitioner’s claim as second wife has no legal sanctity in as much as there is no documentary evidence on record to show that deceased Uttam Singh Maravi had divorced his first wife, Rain Kumari,” the court underlined.
Therefore, while stressing that Conduct Rules do not permit second marriage, court held that in view of the same, contracting second marriage itself is a misconduct. Accordingly, court upheld the denial of the family pension to the widow.
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