The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently said that a wife would be eligible for family pension even if she murdered her husband. The court made the judgement during the case hearing of Baljeet Kaur, a woman who was booked for a murder in 2009, and convicted in 2011.
Baljeet’s husband Tarsem Singh was a Haryana government employee. He passed away in 2008. She was receiving family pension till 2011 but the Haryana government stopped the pension after she was convicted. “Nobody butchers the hen giving golden eggs. The wife cannot be deprived of the family pension even if she murders her husband.
Family pension is a welfare scheme that was launched to provide financial help to the family in the event of a government employee’s death. Wife is entitled to family pension even if she is convicted in a criminal case,” the court observed on January 25.
The court, while setting aside the Haryana government order, directed the concerned department to release the petitioner’s family pension within two months along with her pending dues. After the death of a woman’s husband, she is entitled to a family pension under the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972. And after remarriage, the widow of a government servant is also entitled to receive the family pension.