Husband Facing Trial for Wife's Murder Cannot Claim Her Service Benefits: Rajasthan High Court Releases Children's Share

The petitioners' mother, an ANM in the State's Medical and Health Department, left home to collect payment for a car she had sold and never returned; the investigation revealed that she had been murdered, with the petitioners' father, respondent No. 7, as a co-accused (opening paragraph, para 2). Her name was removed from the service roll, and one petitioner received a compassionate appointment (para 2). Her retiral benefits were made conditional on a death certificate, which the Tehsildar declined; the father's own 2017 claim as her nominee also stalled for want of it (para 3). The State said he was the entitled nominee but had not submitted a claim or produced the certificate (para 4).

Justice Arun Monga began with Rules 66 and 67 of the Rajasthan Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1996, which define a government servant's family and when family pension is admissible (para 6). Under them, sons and daughters, including a widowed or divorced daughter, are entitled to service benefits on an employee's death in harness until they turn 25 or earn more than Rs 6,000 a month (para 6). The only hindrance, the Court found, was that the deceased had named her husband in her service record as the beneficiary (para 7). But being himself a co-accused and under-trial in her murder rendered the father ineligible to claim any benefits (para 8). To balance the equities and prevent any unjust enrichment of the accused father from her death, the department must ascertain all service benefits in the admissible proportion of all legal heirs (para 8). The father's share is withheld and the remainder paid to the children retrospectively, from the date it would ordinarily have been paid had he not been implicated (para 9). If acquitted, he receives his dues in accordance with law (para 10).