ORDER

By way of the present Original Application, the applicant has prayed for the following relief(s):-

“(a) Directing the respondents to place the relevant records pertaining to the present O.A. before their Lordships for the proper adjudication in the matter in the interest of justice, and thereafter;

(b) Quashing and setting aside the impugned letter dated 24.01.2022 (Annexure A/1) issued by the respondent no.

declining the request of the applicant for grant of family pensionafter declaring the same as illegal, biased, perverse, unjust, arbitrary, malafide, unconstitutional, against the principles of natural justice, violative of articles 14, 16 & 21 of the constitution of India and against the mandatory provision of law.

(c) Direct the respondent for grant of family pension to the applicant for which the applicant is entitled as per OM No. 1/13/09-P&PW (E) dt. 19.07.17 issued by Ministry of Personnel, PG & Pensions, Department of Pensions & Pensioners' Welfare, Govt. of India w.e.f. the date of her divorce i.e. 24.01.2016.

(d) Allowing the OA of the applicant with all other consequential benefits namely the arrears of family pension, interest etc. and cost.

(e) Any other fit & proper relief may also be granted to the applicant.”

2. In the instant OA, the applicant, Ms. Savitri, is seeking family pension as a divorced daughter of the deceased family pensioner. Ms. Neelima Rathore, the learned counsel for the applicant, has argued exhaustively, establishing the eligibility of her client with special reference to DOPT OM No. 1/13/09-P&PW (E) dated 19.07.2017 regarding clarification on eligibility of divorced daughters for the grant of family pension, specifically drawing my attention to paragraphs 5 and 6. She further states that the aforementioned OM has been duly adopted by the Indian Railways and entirely covers the case of her client, as this OM settles the dependency of the divorced daughter on the pensioner. The learned counsel for the respondents highlights the impugned order, wherein they state that the applicant could not provide any proof that she is dependent on her mother and, as a result, the proposal for family pension has been rejected. In the impugned letter issued by DRM Northern Railway, Moradabad dated 24.01.2022, it is mentioned that the medical card produced by the applicant during the life time of government employee, shows the age of Ms. Savitri as 7 years. At this juncture, the learned counsel for the applicant has drawn attention to medical card No. 3119, which reflects the name of the applicant as a family member at serial number 6.

3. Learned counsel for the applicant vehemently argues that the applicant is fully covered for grant of family pension as the clarification provided by Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions vide their office memorandum dated 19.07.2017 on the subject – Eligibility of divorced daughters for grant of family pension - clarification regarding, the important paras of the same read as follows:-

“3. It was clarified, vide this department Office Memorandum of even number, dated 11'h September, 2013, that the family pension is payable to the children as they are considered to be dependent on the Government servant/pensioner or his/her spouse. A child who is not earning equal to or more than the sum of minimum family pension and dearness relief thereon is considered to be dependent on his/her parents. Therefore, only those children who are dependent and meet other conditions of eligibility for family pension at the time of death of the Government servant or his/her spouse, whichever is later, are eligible for family pension. If two or more children are eligible for family pension at that time, family pension will be payable to each child on his/her turn provided he/she is still eligible for family pension when the turn comes.

4. It was clarified that a daughter if eligible, as explained in the pr