Parents Can Take Back Property If You Don’t Treat Them Well

Senior Citizens Will
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Often, parents trust their sons blindly and without a second thought, end up gifting their entire property to them. However now, if the son fails to look after the parents they can file a case against him and demand their property back from the son.

The Bombay High Court has ruled that elderly parents can take back their property if their son harrases them, or fails to look after them.

Referring to the Maintenance and Welfare of Senior Citizens Act 2007, a division bench of Bombay HC comprising of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Anuja Prabhudesai upheld a tribunal’s order that had cancelled a gift deed given by an elderly resident through which he had granted 50% share in a flat to his son.

The judges said that the gift deed, which was made at the request of the son and his wife, implied that the elderly father, as well as his second wife, will be treated with care.

Although while cancelling the son’s petition, the court said, “Obviously, the son and his wife though ready and willing to look after the father, were unwilling to do so in respect of the second wife.

In the above circumstances, we do not find any error in the order (cancelling the gift deed), therefore, we are not inclined to entertain this petition.”

Pune 365 speaks to experts and informed citizens to seek their views on this recent important judgement by the Bombay High Court.

The fault is in the upbringing and the son alone cannot be blamed for not treating the parents well, says Somesh Gupta, Entrepreneur.

Some parents discriminate between their son and daughter even today, which often leads to such ill-treatment of their elderly parents. The son is brought up in such a way where his demands are fulfilled despite them being often unreasonable. This in a way, leads him to disrespect his family and eventually the elderly parents suffer.

By implementing such laws, the government is taking a good stand against these errant sons.

However, the courts need to be swift with judgements on such cases, because the parents are old and everyone knows how Indian Courts work, Gupta added.

Mukesh Saroj, Journalist says, It is a historic judgement in the favour of senior citizens and a much-needed legislation against the cruelty meted out to elderly parents by their own children.

However, not everyone has a son and people with only daughters also get ill-treated. Why isn’t the law not talking about daughters not taking care of their parents?

We talk about gender equality and equal rights then why not when it comes to equal responsibility?

Recalling an incident, Mukesh says, “I remember a family, whose son sold the property within a year of transfer and his parents were sent to an old age home.”

The government should also formulate a law that prevents the son from selling the property for as long as the parents are alive. This will help parents retain the property for as long as their alive and also get treated well during this time. 

Shraddha Shrivastav, Housewife, Parents also have a right to live a dignified life and this is certainly an important judgement passed. They should start implementing this on  priority, as the judgement alone will not help the city’s senior citizens. Effective adherence of this law is the key to tackle it.

Building awareness is important as several parents in India are not aware of their rights before and after transferring property to their sons, Shrivastav added.

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#All views expressed in this article are those of the individual respondents and Pune365 does not necessarily subscribe to them.

Ankita Malekar