IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.10747 of 2009 Date of decision:21.12.2009 Smt. Tej Kaur ....Petitioner versus Union of India and others. ...Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE K. KANNAN ---- Present: Mr. J.S.Kahlon, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. Surjit Singh Choudhary, Central Government Counsel, for the respondents. ---- 1. Whether reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? 2. To be referred to the reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the digest ? ---- K.Kannan, J. (Oral) 1. The petitioner, who is a widow of an army personnel, seeks for grant of Ordinary Family Pension under Pre-1964 Scheme as provided under the Pension Regulation for the Army, as per para-219 read with Civil Services Pension Rules, 1964. The counsel for the petitioner states that the entitlement of a dependent of an army personnel was upheld by the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Poonamal (Smt.) etc. Versus Union of India and others-1985(2) SLR 537. It is also stated that similar prayers have also been upheld by this Court in Inder Kaur Versus Union of India and others-1991(3) RSJ 507 and a Division Bench ruling of this Court in Sarup Devi Versus Union of India and others-2008(4) SLR 346. The petitioner has admittedly married subsequent to the death of her husband and married his own Civil Writ Petition No.10747 of 2009 - 2 - blood brother and such a person would also be entitled to pension as per Regulation 219. This issue has been covered by the decision of the Delhi High Court in Kashmiro Devi Versus Union of India and others-2008 (5) SLR 335. This decision struck down the classification made, allowing special family pension to be given only to widows who remarried the brother of the deceased husband and further only if the deceased army personnel had died in action. The Division Bench held that there could be no distinction made between a widow of a person, who died by reason attributable to or aggravated by military service and a person who had died just in service, since the problem faced by both the widows are identical. On a finding that a person, who lives a common life and continues to support the other living eligible heirs, the entitlement to claim family pension could not be denied. I adopt the reasoning given by the Hon'ble Division Bench and Delhi High Court and uphold the claim of the petitioner to be given the benefit of the family pension as provided under the Family Pension Scheme, 1964. The entitlement to such pension shall be computed from 22.09.1977 and having regard to the fact that the petitioner is a 90 year old person, the authorities will consider the claim of the petitioner expeditiously in the light of the decision of this Court within a period of 4 weeks and accord to her all the benefits that accrue to her under the aforesaid scheme. 2. The writ petition is allowed in the above terms. No costs. (K.KANNAN) JUDGE 21.12.2009 sanjeev