legal heirs of a deceased employee who married twice. first wife died, second wife alive

Management received lawyer notices from the son of first wife, and also from the second wife. In PF, the deceased has no e nomination. For gratuity while he was alive, he has given written nomination in favour of second wife. Management has to make his settlement of dues like wages etc. We have a practice to donate one day wages to the deceased family members. Under these circumstances, we request you to please give your guidelines.

M.Sudhakar, GM_P&A, Premier Explosives Limited, TS

Hi,

In case of any dispute among legal heirs in sharing the full and final settlement, please direct all eligible Legal Heirs to obtain Succession Certificate through competent Civil court thereby employer can safeguard their interest. It would be bit time consuming process but if you go by the Verdict of the Court no Legal Heir can challenge the employer's decision.

The second wife as well the son from first marriage, both are legal heirs as per the personal law of the deceased. So, both have a claim for the benefits.
Since the employee had made the 2nd wife the nominee, you are right in going by the nomination and pay the sum to her Importantly, the nominee has only the right to receive the amount but cannot entirely appropriate it. The other legal heirs have a claim against the nominee for their rightful share, the employer is not a party to it. Alternately, the Controlling Authority under the PGA 1972 (the Assistant Commissioner of Labour) is competent to decide who should get what benefit, so the gratuity amount could be deposited with this authority along with the details of family members.

Since the employee died intestate (i.e., without any nomination) then the PF claims received shall be forwarded to the PF authorities certifying the facts of the matter. In so far as the other payments like unpaid salary, leave encashment, or any other welfare sum, go by the nomination if it is there.
You may consider calling both parties and persuade them to agree to a formula to divide the benefits and advise them against any frivolous litigation which will only delay the disposal of the matter and entail uncalled for expenses.