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| HC asks SBI to give retirement benefits to mother of deceased staffer | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | May 7
Justice Nirmal Singh of J&K High Court Jammu Wing struck down the rules framed by the State Bank of India whereby excluding the mother of deceased employee for the pensionary benefits as non-inclusion of mother in the list of legal heirs for the purpose of family pension are to be held violative of Article 14 of the Constitution and also the provisions of the Act, directed that the mother shall be included in the rules as one of the legal heirs for purposes of family pension.
This landmark judgment on the question of whether the mother who falls in the category of Class (I) legal heir under the J&K Hindu Succession Act, can be denied the family pension. The facts of this petition are that son of the petitioner Late Virender Kumar Tickoo, who was working as Senior Manager in State Bank of India remained unmarried during his life time and died on December 28, 2002. Petitioner Mahalakshmi Tickoo, being the sole legal heir, was dependent upon him after the death of son she applied for grant of the benefit of family pension to the respondent bank on November 18, 2003. The claim of the petitioner was rejected on the ground that under the rules, only a widow/widower or the surviving children of the deceased employee is entitled to this benefit. Petitioner represented before the Chairman of the bank but on February 11, 2004 the representation of the petitioner was rejected. Thereafter the petitioner filed this writ petition in the High Court.
In the approved for reporting judgment Justice Nirmal Singh after hearing Adv PN Goja appearing for the petitioner and Adv Gagan Basotra appearing for the respondent bank referred various judgments of the Supreme Court of India and struck down the rules framed by the respondent bank under the family pension scheme and held that mother of the deceased employee is entitled to the benefit of this scheme and directed the SBI that they shall release the retrial benefits in the favour of the petitioner within a period of two months from the date of this copy is made available to the respondent bank by the petitioner. The petitioner shall also be entitled to the arrears of family pension along with interest which is being paid by the respondent bank on fixed deposit under the five year interest payable scheme. The same rate of interest shall be payable on the amount of gratuity and other retrial benefits. In case the family pension and other retrial benefits along with the interest are not released in favour of the petitioner within 2 months, then the petitioner shall be entitled to interest on the amount due to her @ 18% Per Annum and the enhanced interest shall be payable by the person on whose account the delay occurs. JNF |
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