Shimla, June 17,
In a significant ruling, the Himachal Pradesh High Court has directed the Union of India to grant family pension to an 83-year-old mother of a deceased Border Security Force (BSF) soldier, setting aside a decades-old rejection order. The court held that dependent parents become entitled to family pension when the widow of the deceased remarries, and dismissed the government’s objection regarding the delay in filing the petition.
Justice Sandeep Sharma delivered the verdict in a petition filed by Shankari Devi and her late husband, Sita Ram (whose name was deleted posthumously during proceedings). The couple had challenged a 1999 order issued by the BSF’s Pay and Accounts Division that denied them family pension after their daughter-in-law, Suraksha Devi, remarried in 1990.
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The petitioners’ son, Lekh Ram (Service No. 79555014LAC), joined the BSF in 1979 but tragically died under mysterious circumstances just ten days after his marriage to Suraksha Devi in 1985. Initially, Suraksha Devi received the family pension (PPO No. 17868) but stopped drawing it after her remarriage on December 12, 1990. This fact was confirmed through her communication to the BSF in April 2024.
Despite repeated attempts by Shankari Devi to claim the pension, BSF authorities continued to reject her plea, contending that parents were not eligible for family pension and that the claim, filed 24 years after the 1999 rejection order, suffered from fatal delay and laches.
However, Justice Sharma applied Rule 50(10)(a) of the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, which states that if a widow becomes ineligible for family pension — such as upon remarriage — the benefit becomes payable to the deceased employee’s dependent parents for life. The court observed that the rule clearly provides that once the widow becomes ineligible, the pension “shall be paid to the parents for life” if they can establish that they were dependent on the government servant immediately before their death. The court held the 1999 rejection order to be unsustainable.
On the matter of delay, the court invoked the principle of “continuing wrong,” emphasizing that the denial of pension had caused recurring injury to the petitioner. “Since the petitioner, on account of non-authorization of family pension in her favour, is suffering continuously… this court is not persuaded to accept the plea of delay and laches,” stated Justice Sharma, citing past legal precedents in support of service-related claims made after significant time gaps.
The High Court quashed the BSF’s 1999 rejection order and directed the Union of India to consider Shankari Devi’s claim for family pension under Rule 50(10)(a) within six weeks, particularly assessing her dependency on her son at the time of his death. If found eligible, she will be entitled to pension arrears limited to three years prior to the filing of the petition in 2023. The court has directed compliance to be reported by July 22, 2025.
This ruling brings much-needed relief to the octogenarian mother after a 35-year-long legal battle stemming from her son’s untimely death and underscores the legal entitlement of dependent parents to receive family pension after the widow becomes ineligible.
