RAM LAKHAN Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioners are seeking a writ of mandamus to consider and provide suitable employment to petitioner No. 1 under the Rajasthan Recruitment of Dependents of Government Servants (Dying while in Service) Rules, 1975 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Rules of 1975' ). In order to appreciate the basis of the claim, necessary facts, as borne out from the petition and the documents filed along with the petition, may be narrated, which are as under : Late Shri Raghunath Prasad was a constable in the Police Department of the State Government, who died while in service way-back on June 20, 1969. Petitioner No. 2 Smt. Ram Devi is his widow. It appears that in the year 1995, i. e. , after more than 26 years of her husband's death Smt. Ram Devi moved an application in the office of the Superintendent of Police, Bharatpur with a prayer to provide suitable employment/appointment to petitioner No. 1 on the ground of his being her adopted son. The prayer was rejected by the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Bharatpur Range, Bharatpur vide order dated November 6, 1985 on the ground that petitioner Ram Lakhan was not a member of the 'family' of the deceased government- servant. The petitioners are challenging the said order on two fold grounds - (i) the view of the DIG that petitioner No. 1 was not a member of the 'family' of the deceased Government servant is not legally correct as he has been validly adopted by petitioner No. 2 vide a registered adoption deed after performing all necessary ceremonies; (ii) petitioner No. 1, being nephew of the deceased was entitled to get the benefit under proviso to Rule 2 (f) of the Rules of 1975. I have given my careful consideration to the above submissions. As stated earlier, the application seeking employment under the Rules of 1975 has been moved by petitioner No. 2 after 26 years of her husband's death. Rule 2 (f) of the Rules of 1975 defines 'family' as under-"family" means the family of the deceased government servant and shall include wife or husband, son and unmarried or widow daughters and son/daughter adopted according to the provisions of law by the deceased Government servant, who were dependent or the deceased Government servant. Provided that if no such member of the family be eligible for getting the benefit under these Rules, the benefit available under these rules may be extended to any other close relative of the deceased to be named by the widow or the guardian of the children of the deceased with the specific approval of the Department of Personnel. "

(2.) A bare perusal of the above definition of "family" would show that any person seeking benefit to be in the family of the deceased as an adopted son/daughter requires to fulfil the following conditions -

(3.) IN the instant case, admittedly conditions No. 2 and 3 are not fulfilled. Petitioner No. 1 was neither adopted by the deceased government servant nor he was dependent on him. In fact, he was not even born when the deceased government servant, namely, late Shri Raghunath Prasad had died. In view of this, claim of petitioner No. 1 to get employment under the Rules of 1975 on the ground of his being adopted by petitioner No. 2 has been rightly rejected.