Hyderabad HC: Daughters too have rights

Hyderabad: Justice P. Naveen Rao of the Hyderabad High Court has held that the daughter of an ex-employee is equally entitled to receive monetary benefits accrued to a former employee’s account along with other family members, even after her marriage.

The judge was dismissing a petition by C. Chandra Sekhar, son of C. Raja Gopal, an employee of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams challenging the decision of the TTD authorities in apportioning the monetary benefits to the family members of Raja Gopal, including his wife, parents, daughter and son (the petitioner).

The petitioner, while claiming compassionate appointment, submitted an application for grant of terminal benefits accrued to the account of his father.

The petitioner said that only an unmarried daughter and widow were entitled to draw financial benefits accrued to the account of the ex-employee.

He argued that his father had nominated his wife (mother of the petitioner) in the service records to receive various benefits and hence the daughter had no right to claim a share in the death benefits.

The petitioner also contended that married daughter was not entitled to get death benefits and there was no necessity of obtaining a no objection from a such person to secure employment on compassionate grounds.

Counsel for the TTD, defended the action of the Devasthanams contending that nomination only enables the nominee to receive monetary benefits and does not automatically entitle him or her to receive the money exclusively without apportionment of the money to the family members of the ex-employee.

Relying on the judgment delivered by Supreme Court in the Sarabati Devi case and the High Court in the K. Gangadhara Srinath case, the judge upheld the TTD’s decision and ruled that merely because a person is nominated to receive benefits, he alone would not be entitled to appropriate the proceeds notwithstanding the claim of the others as per the Law of Succession.