"In
view of the said judgement, I am of the opinion that receiving pension from
military is not a bar for the petitioner to receive pension from the Fire and Rescue services
department", the judge said and directed the department to pay family
pension to her. Citing a judgement of the Madras High Court itself on a
similar issue, the judge said the dictum laid down in the said judgement was
squarely applicable to the present facts of the
casealso.
Her husband, after retiring voluntarily from the Military service, worked in the Fire and Rescue services department for
17 years and died while in service due to snakebite. In 1992, he joined
the Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescueservices department as Firemen. On March 19, 2009,
while he was in service, he died due to snakebite, leaving behind the
petitioner and three children. She was getting pension from the military
department. Since her husband had completed 17 years of service and died while in
service, she sought family pension from the Fire and Rescueservices
department. But, the department turned down her request on the ground that she
was not entitled to family pension since she receives pension from the
military.
The department however directed her to produce a certificate to the effect that she
was not receiving any family pension from the military service and she would not be
given any family pension in future from military.
She replied that she was receiving family pension from the
military for the services rendered by her husband and it will not be a bar for
getting family pension from the department and requested the department to
sanction pension. But, the department refused to sanction pension to her.
Allowing a petition from K Gunasundari, Justice R Subbiah said
the petitioner was eligible to get Dearness Allowance only for one pension
(either for Military family pension or for family pension from Fire and Rescue services department) and
directed the Fire and Rescue services department to sanction and release family pension with
arrears to her within 8 weeks and continue to pay the family pension so long as
she was eligible to get family pension.
Her counsel Mohamed
Ismail submitted that petitioner's husband R Kesavan joined the military and
after putting pensionable service. He voluntarily retired from the service in
1989.
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