HP High Court Quashes Rejection of Pension Nominee Change, Orders Entry of Second Wife’s Name in Records
Shimla, Sept 19: The Himachal Pradesh High Court has set aside an order of the state authorities that rejected a retired government employee’s request to enter the name of his second wife as nominee in his pension records.
Justice Sandeep Sharma, while pronouncing judgment in CWP No.2269 of 2024 filed by Mahesh Ram, directed the respondents to record the name of his second wife, Ms. Jawala Devi, in place of his first wife, Ms. Kamlesh Devi, who had died in April 2020.
The petitioner, appointed as Carpenter/Foreman in 1973 and retired in 2003, had first married Kamlesh Devi in 1994.
Later that year, on the insistence of his first wife, he married her younger sister, Ms. Jawala Devi, since the couple had no children.
After the death of Kamlesh Devi in 2020, the petitioner requested the department to substitute the nominee’s name in his pension record.
His plea was rejected by the authorities on the ground that the second wife was not eligible for family pension under Rule 54 of the CCS Pension Rules, 1972.
The state argued that the second marriage was void under Section 5 of the Hindu Marriage Act, having been solemnised during the subsistence of the first marriage.
The Court, however, noted the peculiar facts of the case, including the continuous cohabitation of the petitioner with both wives since 1994, and the absence of any competing claims from other legal heirs.
Relying on recent judgments of the Supreme Court (Shiramabai & Ors. v. The Captain Record Officer, 2023; Radha Devi v. Chief General Manager & Ors., 2022) and a coordinate bench decision in Kusum Lata v. State of H.P. (2024), the Court held that long cohabitation can give rise to a presumption of valid marriage and that denial of recognition in such circumstances would be unjust.
Accordingly, the Court quashed Annexure P-5, the impugned order rejecting the representation, and directed the state to substitute the name of Ms. Jawala Devi in the service record within two months.