In a significant move that aims to ensure a better and safer environment for parents at home, the Delhi High Court has ruled that adults who abuse their parents while living in their house can be evicted from the property.
According to a Times of India report, the court, in its ruling, specified that the house need not be self-acquired or owned by the parents. As long as the parents have legal possession of the property, they can evict their abusive sons and daughters.
This is a major improvisation in a 2007 law that had left it to state governments to frame rules to protect the life and property of senior citizens.
Justice Manmohan, while interpreting provisions of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007 (MWPSCA), ruled that the senior citizens’ maintenance tribunal “can issue an eviction order to ensure that senior citizens live peacefully in their house without being forced to accommodate a son who physically assaults and mentally harasses them or threatens to dispossess them”.
The HC found that the Delhi government had allowed a senior citizen to complain to district authorities to evict abusive children only from a self-acquired property, despite the fact that the Act makes no such distinction and gives protection to parents even in a rented accommodation.
“Consequently, this court directs government of NCT of Delhi to amend/formulate its rules framed under Section 32... as well as an action plan under Section 22(2) of the Act, in conformity with this judgment,” the court ruled.
The High Court ruling came while hearing an appeal filed by an alcoholic man, who had challenged the tribunal’s order to evict him for a Civil Lines residence where his parents live.
The court stated that “the 2007 Act provides for eviction of adult children in cases of parental abuse, like in the present case”, and ordered the SHO to ensure the man was evicted from the house immediately.
