June 18, 2007
Hapless Elderly Parents Sue Wards
for Maintenance By Rana Ajit
New Delhi
Rani Devi is 75 and a widow. Despite being a mother of two well-off
sons, she is reconciled to spending her last days with one of her
cousins here, away from the warmth and security of her own family.
The native of neighbouring Haryana was forced to stay with her
cousin Dhani Ram Gupta after her Mumbai-based younger son, an
alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Powai, turned
her away saying: "Ma, I am too poor to afford your upkeep."
Her older son, an executive with a multinational company in Madhya
Pradesh town, told her: "Ma you can stay with me, but on one
condition. When I step out for work in the morning, you will have to
come out and stay in the lawn outside the house because my wife does
not like your face."
Rani Devi's traumatic experience was narrated to IANS by senior
advocate Neveen Matta, who helped Rani Devi win a court battle
against her two sons for a paltry maintenance amount of Rs.2,000 a
month from each of her sons.
The government introduced the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and
Senior Citizens Bill, 2007, in Lok Sabha March 20 to strengthen the
case of aged people like Rani Devi, who incidentally is still doing
the rounds of courts.
"The younger son was so callous that he challenged the magisterial
court's order before a superior sessions judge, securing a stay on
the lower court order," said Matta, adding the hapless widow was
continuing to fight the case in a Rohini district court with help
from the Delhi Legal Aide Cell.
Rani Devi's tale is not the only one of its kind. Though there are
no official statistics available on the number of parents
approaching courts to claim compensation from their children in
Delhi or elsewhere in the country, lawyers fighting such court
battles say more and more elderly citizens - there are nearly 75
million senior citizens above the age of 60 in India - devoid of
social security, partly owing to erosion of the traditional joint
family system, are approaching the courts for relief.
The lawyers say instances of elderly parents suing their wards for
maintenance and on sundry other grounds still constitute an
"insignificant percentage" of the over 25 million cases of various
natures pending in lower courts all over India.
In a similar case, a septuagenarian Sikh man, Devendra Wadhwa, has
approached a civil court to evict his two sons from the house he
purchased with his own income on the ground that they were harassing
him instead of ensuring his upkeep, said another lawyer Ram Avtar.
What are the laws under which such senior citizens abandoned by
their sons and daughters can approach courts to seek relief and
maintenance from their wards?
"At present, the only provision in the law is Section 125 of the
Criminal Procedure Code (CRPC), under which a senior citizens can
drag his son to court to seek maintenance from him," said former
Additional Sessions Judge Prem Kumar, adding it was the same
provision under which abandoned wives could claim maintenance from
their estranged husbands.
For relief under this provision, an elderly citizen can approach any
court of judicial magistrate, Kumar said.
Section 125 of the CrPC is the order for maintenance of wives,
children and parents. Part 1 (d) Section 125 of the CrPC states: "If
any person having sufficient means neglects or refuses to maintain
his father or mother who is unable to maintain himself or herself
then a first class magistrate can order him to give a monthly
maintenance allowance, not exceeding Rs.500.
"But under this provision, a daughter is not liable to pay
maintenance to her parents as Section 125 specifically mentions the
word 'his', meaning only the son," said Kumar.
But things are set to change after the passage of the Maintenance
and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Bill, 2007. The bill is
likely to be passed by the yearend.
Under it, a person responsible for the upkeep of his or her parent,
in case of failure, can attract punitive measures like three months
imprisonment and a fine of Rs.5,000. Besides, it also provides for
an option to parents to revoke their will.
The bill provides for establishments of special tribunals at the
district level having wide-ranging powers to order sons and
daughters to provide need-based maintenance to their parents.
"The law would provide effective care and protection to senior
citizens and would provide a speedy and inexpensive legal framework
to grant maintenance to them," Minister for Social Justice and
Empowerment Meira Kumar had told Lok Sabha while introducing the
bill.
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