Photo used for indicative purpose only. Source internet
Shimla, Sept 19,
The Himachal Pradesh High Court has directed the State government to enter the name of a petitioner’s second wife in his service and pension records, setting aside an earlier departmental rejection.
Justice Sandeep Sharma, while allowing the writ petition filed by Mahesh Ram, observed that although the second marriage was contracted during the subsistence of the first, the peculiar facts of the case warranted relief.
The petitioner, a retired Carpenter/Foreman, married Kamlesh Devi in 1994. On her insistence, he subsequently married her younger sister Jawala Devi in the same year as the couple remained childless. Following Kamlesh Devi’s death in April 2020, the petitioner sought to have Jawala Devi’s name entered as nominee for family pension. The request was rejected on the grounds that a second wife is not eligible under the CCS Pension Rules, 1972.
Citing the long cohabitation and absence of objections from legal heirs, the Court held that rigid application of rules would cause injustice. “Though marriage of the petitioner with Ms. Jawala Devi during subsistence of his first marriage with Ms. Kamlesh Devi can be said to be illegal, in peculiar facts and circumstances of the case… no prejudice shall be caused to either of the parties in case prayer… for change of name of his nominee in the service record is accepted,” Justice Sharma noted.
The Court further relied on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Shiramabai vs. The Captain Record Officer (2023), which held that long cohabitation raises a presumption of valid marriage. “Objection being raised by the respondents with regard to second marriage of petitioner during subsistence of earlier marriage deserves to be overruled on account of the fact that petitioner and Ms. Jawala Devi had been cohabiting with each other since the year 1994,” the judge said.
Quashing the departmental order, the Court directed the authorities to record the name of Jawala Devi in place of the deceased first wife within two months.
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