HC orders second wife to pay share of pension: The wife of the deceased government employee asked for a share in her husband's pension, only one of the two wives used to get the pension

The case of a legal case between widowed wives to get the amount of family pension after the death of her husband came up before the high court. Replying to a legal query on whether one wife or both wives would get family pension in cases where a man had married two women before retiring from government service, the high court noted that the rules of the Gujarat Civil Services Pension Rules, 2002 make it clear that when it comes to paying the family pension to more than one widow, widows have to pay equal amounts. That is, there is no obligation to give family pension to a single wife. Order to make half of the payment in 3 months Whether the first wife is entitled to pension or the second wife is not clear in the rules. On the contrary, according to the rules, there is an equal amount of payment of family pension among widows. With this conclusion, the High Court has ordered the petitioner wife to pay half of the pension amount of the deceased husband within three months. The high court also noted in the judgment that as per the rules of the Gujarat Civil Services Pension and the wife comes under the definition of 'family' and it also includes a legally separated wife and husband. Of course, the marriage of a government employee must have taken place before he retired. The second wife of the deceased did not appear after receiving the notice. It is undeniable in this case that the marriage of both the wives with the husband took place even before his retirement from service. Not only this, the applicant woman was the legal wife of the deceased husband and the husband married another woman. The fact that the petitioner's husband had two wives at the time of his death is also undeniable. The second wife was also served a notice during the case but she chose not to appear. Apart from this, the rules also say that regardless of the nomination form, when there is more than one widow, they should distribute the family pension equally. The court disposed of the petition Thus the applicant is entitled to receive a part of the family pension of the woman husband, which is eligible to be paid to his widowed wife. In a detailed scrutiny of the Gujarat Civil Services Rules, the High Court has directed the authority to start paying half of the family pension to the petitioner widow's wife within three months. However, the high court has not accepted the demand for recovery from the pension amount paid to the second wife so far. In this case, the petitioner has disposed of the petition by giving permission that if the wife wants, she can take another legal route.