You ill-treated dad, leave his home now: Bombay HC to sons – Times of India

MUMBAI: Two sons of an 81-year-old Matunga resident undertook before the Bombay HC to “quietly and peacefully” vacate their father’s flat along with their spouses, children and servants, reports Rosy Sequeira.
To demonstrate their genuineness, the court on Monday directed them to vacate “immediately today and without waiting for an authenticated copy of this order”. The sons, accordingly, vacated the same evening.
The father, who has old age ailments, said his sons and their wives started torturing him financially, physically and mentally after his wife died in 2017 and that they took away Rs 84 lakh of his savings, including gold and silver.
Return money of neglected father: High court to sons
This is another unfortunate case where the petitioner, a senior citizen, complains that he has been mistreated by his own children and their spouses. This once again invokes rights under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007,” said the bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Madhav Jamdar.
In his petition, the father said he had a textile business. With passage of time, his wife and he had developed old age ailments. After his wife passed away in April 2017, he was “miserable and aloof” in his own house. “The respondents started torturing him financially, physically and mentally,’’ he said in his petition. From January to June 2018 while he was in hospital due to a prostate illness, he was neglected.
In June 2018 his sons and daughters-in-law closed his 30-year-old provident fund account and withdrew Rs 34 lakh from it. They transferred his investments from his demat account and took away gold and silver jewellery, utensils, etc and other movables worth Rs 50 lakh. They also took Rs 2.5 lakh cash.
The judges noted that the father’s petition has details about his ill-treatment and the court will “turn to this on the next date”. For the present, they accepted the statement by advocate Omkar Warange, on behalf of the sons and their wives, that they will re-transfer all shares to the father’s demat account. “The complaint is that the respondents forcibly transferred the shares out of the petitioner’s demat account and then closed it,” said the bench. The judges directed a bank to “urgently” open a fresh demat account to transfer shares held jointly with a son after the father’s advocates Prashant Pandey and Darshit Jain said he does not want a re-transfer and will open a fresh demat account.
“The respondents will bring back into the Court and deposit with the Prothonotary and Senior Master the entire amount withdrawn from the petitioner’s PF Account i.e. Rs 34,00,000 with accrued interest,” said the judges, directing the deposit to be made by Thursday (December 16).
With regard to right of residence, the judges said they will consider submissions by the parties on a later date. To demonstrate their bona fides, the respondents were asked to leave the house immediately. “We also accept their undertaking that they will not visit the flat hereafter without previous leave of the court,’’ said the judges. The four were also directed to deliver the keys of the office premises to the court receiver and are not to part with possession or create any third party rights in it. “We put the respondents to notice that if there is slightest breach of this order regarding any premises, we will have no hesitation in appointing the court receiver whether there is prayer for it or not,” the judges warned.