Point of Law: When a Railway servant died while in service or after his retirement without receiving the amount of gratuity and has left behind no family, which is the case in hand, the death gratuity or retirement gratuity, as the case might be, can be given in favour of a person, who has a succession certificate.

JUDGMENT :

Sudhanshu Dhulia, J

Heard Mr. A. Ahmed, learned counsel for the petitioner. Also heard Mr. B.K. Das, learned standing counsel, N.F. Railway, appearing for the respondent Nos.1 to 4 and Mr. N.N. Upadhyaya, learned counsel, appearing for the respondent Nos.5 to 8.

2. Late Utpal Chandra Sarkar was an employee in the Indian Railways and at the time when he died on 22.03.2013 at the age of 53 years, he was staying with the present petitioner. According to the petitioner, she is the sister of the deceased employee.

3. The petitioner is a widow and has two children. After the death of Utpal Chandra Sarkar, the petitioner moved an application before the Railway Authorities for grant of pension and all other retiral benefits. In order to strengthen her claim, she also submitted a nomination certificate dated 03.02.2005, wherein Utpal Chandra Sarkar had called the petitioner as his sister and the children of the petitioner as his niece. The application filed by the petitioner was rejected by the Railway Authorities on 05.03.2014 on the ground that the petitioner is not blood relative of the deceased and, therefore, under the Railway Services (Pension) Rules, 1993 (hereinafter referred to as “1993 Rules”), she is not entitled for pension and other pensionary benefits.

4. Ultimately, the petitioner filed an original application before the Central Administrative Tribunal, Guwahati Bench, Guwahati, which was numbered as Original Application No.040/00189/2014.

5. The Central Administrative Tribunal during the course of hearing also directed the petitioner to implead the relatives of the deceased employee, who were impleaded as respondent Nos.5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9(i) and 9(ii) in the original application. The private respondent Nos.5 to 9 before the Tribunal are the brothers and sisters of the deceased employee and admittedly all of them are married and the private respondent Nos.9(i) and 9(ii) are niece of the deceased employee. The Tribunal ultimately vide order dated 07.04.2015 decided that the petitioner is not a blood relative of the deceased and is not entitled to receive pension under the 1993 Rules. Aggrieved, the petitioner has filed the present writ petition before this Court.

6. The grant of pension is to be governed as per the Rules or the Scheme given in the 1993 Rules. Rule 70 of the 1993 Rules reads as under:-

“70. Retirement gratuity or death gratuity - (1)(a) In the case of a railway servant, who has completed five years, qualifying service and has become eligible for service gratuity or pension under rule 69, shall, on his retirement, be granted retirement gratuity equal to one-fourth of his emoluments for each completed six monthly period of qualifying service subject to a maximum of sixteen and one-half times the emoluments and there shall be no ceiling on reckonable emoluments for calculating the gratuity.

(b) If a railway servant dies while in service, the amount of death gratuity shall be paid to the family in the manner indicated in the Table below:

Provided that the amount of retirement gratuity or death gratuity payable under this rule shall in no case, exceed rupees one lakh:

Provided further that the amount of retirement or death gratuity as finally calculated shall be rounded off to the next higher rupees.

(2) If a railway servant, who has become eligible for a service gratuity or pension, dies within fi