Share of a nominee who dies or becomes disqualified to be distributed equally among the others

1) Share of a nominee who dies or becomes disqualified to be distributed equally among the others. - A question has been raised whether the shares of the members of the family of the deceased Government servant who are alive on the date of death of the Government servant, but die or become disqualified before the date on which the amount of the gratuity is actually disbursed, should be divided among the surviving members and the legal heirs of the members who in the meantime have died. The position in the matter is explained below - Death/retirement gratuity is in the nature of a gift. Section 122 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, provides that if the donee of a gift dies before acceptance, the gift is void. In other words, the donee must be alive on the date of the gift and the representative of a person deceased at the date of the gift cannot take the gift from him. On this analogy the sanction of the gratuity in favour of a deceased person would also be void at law. It would not vest the gift in the pre-deceased donee and would not hence become part of his estate so as to pass on to his heirs by succession. It has accordingly been decided that, in the type of cases referred to, the share of the gratuity otherwise payable to a member of the family who has died or become disqualified before receiving actual payment, shall be distributed equally among the remaining members of the family. Disbursing authorities should accordingly ascertain, before making actual payment of a death/retirement gratuity whether all the member of the family in whose favour the sanction was issued have continued to be qualified. If not, and if any of them is dead, the fact should be reported immediately to the sanctioning authority for the issue of a revised sanction in favour of the remaining members of the family. [G.I., M.F., O.M. No. F. 48 (1)-E. V/58, dated the 5th May, 1958.]