Himachal Pradesh High Court Allows Second Wife’s Inclusion in Government Pension After First Wife’s Death

The Himachal Pradesh High Court has ruled that a government employee’s second wife cannot be denied inclusion in pension records after the death of his first wife, even if the second marriage was technically void under Section 5 of the Hindu Marriage Act, due to the peculiar circumstances of long cohabitation. The case stemmed from an employee who married a first wife in 1994, and later (while the first was alive) married her younger sister; the first marriage produced no children. Following retirement in 2003, the petitioner requested that after the first wife’s death in 2020, the nominee in his pension records be changed to the second wife. The government had refused, citing Section 5 (which makes marriage during the life of a spouse void) and Rule 54 of the CCS Pension Rules, which disallows pension claims by a second wife married during the subsistence of a first marriage. However, the Court invoked the Supreme Court decision in Shriramabai v. Captain Record Officer (2023), which allows a presumption of valid marriage after long continuous cohabitation. The Court held there was no prejudice to legal heirs and granted the relief.