Two years, eight visits, no pension: An 85-yr-old’s battle with the system
Mangaluru: For the past two years, Vasu Kotyan (85) has been navigating a maze of government offices seeking the family pension he is entitled to, after the death of his wife Varija Kotyan, a retired schoolteacher. His case has now drawn the attention of the Human Rights Protection Foundation, Udupi, which has termed the delay “a denial of dignity”.
Varija Kotyan worked for 36 years at Vidyadayini Primary School, Surathkal, and retired in 2013. After her death in January 2023, Kotyan applied for family pension through the Block Education Officer, Mangaluru, who forwarded the file to the Accountant General with due recommendation.
What followed, Kotyan says, was a cycle of objections and silence. The AG office raised issues ranging from the absence of a nominee to the lack of a joint photograph. Kotyan submitted all documents — death certificate, original pension sanction order, survivor certificate issued by the Tahsildar, and photographs — multiple times.
In a particularly troubling episode, the AG office sent a registered letter addressed to the deceased Varija Kotyan. The postman refused delivery due to the lack of her signature.
“I asked them how a dead person could sign,” Kotyan recalls.
After months of unanswered letters and eight personal visits to Bengaluru, Kotyan approached the Human Rights Protection Foundation in January 2025. Following its intervention, the AG office wrote to the District Treasury, Mangaluru, on August 11, 2025, seeking pension records for granting family pension. Four months later, the pension is still unpaid.
Legal experts associated with the Foundation point out that government rules and court orders are unambiguous: absence of a nominee does not disqualify an eligible spouse.
The survivor certificate clearly lists Kotyan and two children, both over 40 years old, leaving Kotyan as the sole beneficiary.
The Foundation has submitted a detailed representation to the Ministry of Finance, warning that Kotyan’s case echoes an earlier tragedy involving Sheethalakshmamma, who died in the 1990s without receiving her family pension after her husband, Lakshmanarayana, a retired Mangalore Port Trust manager, passed away.“This should not happen again,” the Foundation said, urging immediate action.
