Mala Devi vs. Union of India 2025 INSC 855 - Railway Pension Rules
Railway Pension Rules, 1993 - Rule 75 - The qualifying service for a temporary railway servant to be entitled for the grant of benefit of family pension is a continuous service of one year. More so, this benefit of family pension is accrued to the family of the deceased railway servant who died in harness after completion of one year of continuous service, without any discrimination, whether the post was temporary or had been regularized. [Context: While allowing a widow's appeal, SC observed: we find that the argument canvassed by the Respondents in depriving the Appellant of family pension from her deceased husband for not completing 10 years of qualifying service by falling short of hardly 3 months, is not in congruence with the legislative intent of the Indian Railway Establishment Manual & the Railway Pension Rules, 1993. The salutary purpose of the rules thereunder is to extend the benefit of family pension to the families of those servants who have served for a considerable strength of time. The present case is not a case of a casual labourer being simply accorded a temporary status, without any scrutiny or examination as cautioned against in Clause 4.4. of the Master Circular issued by the Ministry of Railways]
Case Info
Case Name and Neutral Citation
- Case Name: Mala Devi v. Union of India & Ors.
- Neutral Citation: 2025 INSC 855
Coram (Judges)
- Justice Sanjay Karol
- Justice Satish Chandra Sharma
Judgment Date
- Date of Judgment: July 16, 2025
Caselaws and Citations Referred
- Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd. & Ors. v. Surji Devi
- Citation: [2008] 2 SCC 310
- Prabhavati Devi v. Union of India & Ors.
- Citation: AIR 1996 SC 752
Statutes / Laws Referred
- Indian Railway Establishment Manual-Vol-I
- Rule 1515: Rights and privileges admissible to the Substitutes
- Railway Service (Pension) Rules, 1993
- Rule 18(3): Pensionary, terminal or death benefits to temporary railway servant
- Rule 75(2)(a): Family pension for railway servants
- Family Pension Scheme for Railway Servants, 1964
- Article 142 of the Constitution of India
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