Lucknow, Oct. 29 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday set aside an order denying family pension to the unmarried sister of a deceased government employee, holding that statutory service rules cannot be overridden by a government order.The court also directed the authorities to pay the arrears with 6 per cent annual interest.

A single-judge bench of Justice Manish Kumar passed the order on a petition filed by Shameen Khan, whose late brother had nominated her for family pension in his service book.

Her claim was rejected on December 5, 2025, on the basis of a government order dated December 23, 2016, which excluded an unmarried sister from the definition of the family of a deceased employee.

During the hearing, ...