ORAL JUDGMENT (Per Nitin Jamdar, J):

1. Rule. Rule is made returnable forthwith. The Respondents waive service. Taken up for disposal.

2. Respondent No. 1 is the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu; Respondent No. 2 is Principal of the Government Industrial Training Institute, the employer of the Petitioner's mother.

3. The Petitioner's mother-the Late Meena J. Patel, worked as an Upper Divisional Clerk in the Union Territory Administration at the Government Industrial Training Institute. She expired on 14 November 2016. Late Meena Patel had filed a nomination for death-cum-retirement gratuity on 13 January 1999 under Rule 53(1) of the Central Services (Pension) Rules, 1972 (for short “the 1972 Rules”) as per Form 1.

4. Late Meena J. Patel had nominated the Petitioner to succeed her for the death-cum-retirement gratuity. The nomination was in favour of the Petitioner, but since he was 8 years old, she had referred to the name of her father, J. N. Rohit, as a second nominee as a guardian of the Petitioner. Entry was accordingly taken in the service book of the Late Meena J. Patel. After the death of the Petitioner's father, the Petitioner's mother remarried Mr.