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Judgment
Vipin Sanghi, CJ
1) Delay Condonation Application has been filed by the appellants for condoning the delay of 21 days in preferring the present Special Appeal. Said application is accompanied by the affidavit filed by appellant No. 2 Smt. Sadhana Devi. The cause shown for delay is found sufficient. Therefore, we are inclined to condone the delay. The delay is condoned. Delay Condonation Application (I.A. No. 02 of 2022) is, accordingly, allowed.
2) The present appeal is directed against the order dated 22.04.2022, whereby the writ petition preferred by the appellants has been dismissed by the learned Single Judge.
3) The appellants had preferred the said writ petition to seek a direction to the respondents for release of the family pension, and other dues, on the ground that the appellants are the son and widow of the deceased late Sri Samsher Singh.
4) It is not in dispute that Sri Samsher Singh had a first wife namely, Smt. Krishna Devi, to whom he got married in the year 1981. Marriage of Samsher Singh with petitioner No. 2 was solemnized on 12.06.1987, during subsistence of the first marriage. In this background, the learned Single Judge held that no direction could be issued for release of the entire family pension, and other dues, to the petitioners since there are children begotten by Sri Samsher Singh through his first wife Smt. Krishna Devi, as well. The appellants were left to obtain the succession certificate from the competent court.
5) Learned counsel for respondent Nos. 1 and 2, who appears on advance notice, submits that the appeal itself is not maintainable since the Central Administrative Tribunal has jurisdiction in the matter. This is not disputed by learned counsel for the appellants. He submits that the writ petition came to be dismissed even before a counter could be filed.
6) In the light of the aforesaid, we dispose of this Special Appeal while granting liberty to the appellants to move the Central Administrative Tribunal to ventilate their grievances. The Central Administrative Tribunal shall examine the matter afresh, on its own merits, without being influenced by the impugned order. We, however, make it clear that we have not examined the merits of the appellants’ claim one way or another.
Stay Application (IA No. 01 of 2022) also stands disposed of.