Ruling that it is the statutory duty of grown-up children to look after their elderly parents, the Bombay High Court directed the sons of a senior citizen couple to vacate the house they had forcefully taken possession of. It also told the State government to create awareness about the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act.
A single-judge Bench of Justice Sadhana Jadhav was hearing a plea filed by Santosh Patil, the elder son, challenging the order directing him to vacate the ground floor of his parent’s bungalow in Pune. As per the reply filed by his parents, their father, aged 78, had retired from a private company. Though he wasn’t entitled to pension, he had received ₹6 lakh as provident fund and gratuity. Their mother, a retired teacher, had received ₹3.75 lakh as towards pension and gratuity.
It says Santosh’s father took a loan to construct a bungalow that would accommodate both sons and a daughter. The elder son married and began living separately, and the younger son too moved out soon thereafter. Their daughter, however, lived on the second floor and looked after them.
In 2004, when the elderly couple fell ill, Santosh prepared a memorandum of understanding (MoU) which said the bungalow’s ground floor would be his, though he no longer lived in the house. The MoU was drafted without his parents’ consent, and they were made to sign on it while they were ailing and bedridden.
The younger son too took advantage of the situation and rented out a part of the bungalow’s first floor, which was occupied by his parents, without their consent. The couple also claimed they had sold 15 tolas of gold to pay off a ₹2.65 lakh loan taken by the younger son.
On February 20, 2016, the Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) in Pune directed the Santosh to vacate the ground floor of the bungalow and pay ₹2,500 per month as maintenance to his parents. Santosh approached the appellate authority, which stayed the SDO’s order and ultimately dismissed it. On April 30, 2016, Santosh’s appeal was rejected by the Additional District Collector, Pune.
The court said, “This is an unfortunate litigation between aged parents and middle-aged sons. In today’s set of affairs, the contention of grown-up children is it is the parents’ duty to look after their children, which they had not demanded. Similarly, the statutory duty is now cast upon the children also to look after their aged parents and not just claim right of inheritance.”
It also noted that the parents in the case were not only exposed to emotional neglect, feeling of rejection and social insecurity, their peaceful existence had come under threat. “It is a fundamental right of parents to seek a life a dignity, peace and liberty and it is necessary to enforce the provisions of law,” the cour said.
The Bench directed the sons to pay ₹2,000 each to their parents from August 1, 2017 and vacate the bungalow. The court also directed Santosh to pay ₹25,000 as cost of litigation, while asking the State government to create awareness about the Act for the welfare of senior citizens.
