The division bench of justices Gautam Patel and Madhav Jamdar of the Bombay High Court observed that the wealthy senior citizens in Mumbai are being harassed by their own children for the high-priced property in Megapolis.
The bench said, “It is our experience that in this city, and particularly or most especially amongst the wealthy of this city, senior citizens and elderly parents are being subjected to all kinds of harassment and deprivation in their twilight years.”
The bench further added, “In case after case, we have complaints from senior citizens that their own sons and daughters are harassing them. In every case, the harassment is an attempt to somehow grab the senior citizen’s property in his or her lifetime without thought spared to the mental or physical health well-being or happiness of these seniors. The present case is no different.”
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The court observed this while ordering a woman to remove all her personal belongings from her father’s flat in upmarket Altamount road in South Mumbai and leave him in peace.
The daughter used to live in Germany for sometime before she returned to India in 2015. The father, who has four daughters in all, thought that the woman would be around only for a short while and would leave after some time. However, the differences between the two only grew and rose to such a level that the daughter refused to leave without getting her “share” of the property.
The bench observed, “What is her ‘share’ while he is alive? She has none. He may indeed give his flat and all wealth away inter vivos. That is his choice. She cannot prevent him from doing so. So long as he is alive, the daughter has no ‘share’ in his property.”
The daughter had approached the high court against an order passed by a Welfare Tribunal formed under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007. The tribunal had also ruled in favour of the father on November 27, 2020.
While pondering over the challenge presented by daughter to the Tribunal order, the bench said, “We do not believe that it is the statutory intent that the harassment to a senior citizen should continue while the Tribunal is flooded or inundated with some evidence or the other only to prolong or delay matters. The one thing that senior citizens do not have the benefit or luxury of is time. It is not on their side, and every day’s delay before a Tribunal like this hurts senior citizens exponentially more than the younger generation.”
To adjucate on the issue at a faster pace, the bench directly spoke to the father through video conferencing.
He conversed in Hindi and the court observed, “He is certainly of advanced years. For his age, he seems reasonably fit. His voice is steady and strong and he is quite clear-eyed. He was completely unambiguous and indeed emphatic in his statement to us that he did not want his daughter in his house for one minute longer. He repeatedly asked that she be made to leave his flat and that he be left in peace.”
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Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/law/story/wealthy-parents-harassed-by-children-for-property-bombay-high-court-1882718-2021-12-01
