No family pension of second wife if first wife is alive: HC

KOCHI: A man cannot claim the family pension of his second wife if his first wife was alive, Kerala High Court has ruled.
The judgement in this regard was delivered by a division bench comprising Justices K Balakrishnan Nair and P N Ravindran while rejecting a writ appeal filed by B Moidu of Chombara in Kozhikode. The petitioner had claimed the family pension of his deceased second wife, who was a headmistress in a lower primary school.
The appellant had approached the court challenging the rule which stipulates that a living wife would stand in the way of getting family pension. This was 'arbitrary and discriminatory', he stated.
The petitioner, after the death of his second wife, received the family pension for six years.
However, following objections raised by the Accountant General's office and the state government, it was stopped.
The government directed to recover the pension amount of Rs 3.19 lakh from the petitioner from 1996 to 2003.
The court said that even while assuming second marriage is lawful, in terms of family law, contracting a second marriage is prohibited unless permitted by government, as per the government servant conduct rules.
Petitioner had not obtained such a permission the court pointed out and held that he was liable to remit the amount.