Overview

• The Aurangabad bench of Justices Manish Pitale and Yanshivraj Khobragade allowed the petition of the widow and her two sons for family pension and terminal benefits.
• The Maharashtra government was directed to release arrears within eight weeks, with 9% annual interest for any delay, and to start the monthly family pension immediately thereafter.
• The court rejected claims by the deceased employee’s mother and brother, who had relied on a nomination change replacing the wife with the brother.
• The judges held that under the MCSR and cited government resolutions, only a spouse and children qualify as family for pension, and a nomination cannot override that framework.
• Case background noted marriage in 1997, appointment in 2009 under the DCPS, a 2011 divorce filing with unproven adultery allegations, and the husband’s death in 2018; the matter was decided in VVB v. State of Maharashtra (W.P. No. 11613 of 2019).