Family Pension Goes to Legally Wedded First Wife, Not Second Wife; No Succession Certificate Needed: Rajasthan High Court

The petitioner's husband retired as Deputy Chief Inspector on 31.07.1993 and drew a monthly pension (para 6). His divorce petition under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 was returned by the Family Court on 23.07.1987 for presentation before the competent court and was never refiled (para 6). In her domestic violence case he did not deny that she was his wife, pleading only a ‘social divorce’ (paras 3, 6). He died on 07.10.2016 and she applied for family pension on 21.10.2016 (para 3). The authorities demanded a succession certificate, citing his application to record another woman as his wife and two children as his son and daughter (paras 3-4).

A ‘social divorce’ has no legal recognition: a marriage subsists until a court decrees divorce, so the petitioner remained the wife and is now the widow (paras 6-8). Rule 67(a) of the 1996 Rules makes family pension admissible to a ‘widow’, a term the Rules do not define (paras 12-13). A Hindu marriage solemnised while the man's wife is alive is void under Sections 5 and 11 of the Hindu Marriage Act, so the second woman is not his widow and falls outside Rules 66 and 67, which speak of a ‘widow’, not ‘widows’ (paras 13-14). Following Raj Kumari v. Krishan and decisions of the Karnataka, Madras and Gauhati High Courts, the Court held that where an employee had a second wife without divorcing the first, only the first wife is entitled (paras 17-22). Respondent No. 4 produced no proof of a valid marriage despite substituted service; the husband's nomination alone could not defeat the petitioner's claim (para 21). A succession certificate under the Indian Succession Act, 1925 covers only debts and securities; family pension accrues only on the employee's death, is not a debt due to him, and needs no certificate (paras 25-38).