Amend rules to enable parents to take back property from children over negligence: UP law commission

By Kamna Hajela
Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], April 2 : The Uttar Pradesh State Law Commission (UPSLC) on Friday submitted a proposal to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for amending the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act-2007 to enable the senior citizens to take their properties back from their heirs over negligence.
UPSLC has proposed that the deed of the gifted property will stand cancelled following a complaint by an elderly person.
It has also proposed that if children or relatives living in the house of elderly persons do not take care of them or treat them inappropriately, they can be "expelled from their home".
As per the Senior Citizens Maintenance Welfare Act, a senior citizen including a parent who is unable to maintain himself from his own earning or out of the property owned by him shall be entitled to maintenance by the children and relatives.
The state governments were given the power to make rules and decide on the tribunal. Uttar Pradesh government formulated rules under the Act in 2014 and constituted a tribunal the same year.
The UPSLC, in its 13 reports earlier which were submitted after studying the Act and after interacting with the elderly, found out that in several cases children living in the property of their elderly parents were not taking care of them.
UPSLC also noted that in many cases, children themselves use almost the entire property of their ageing parents and "place them in a small portion".
The UPSLC has proposed amending rule 22 of the Act to take care of a condition in which children do not take care of their parents and want to evict them from their property.
The Delhi High Court has ruled that if elderly parents have transferred their property in the name of children and the children do not take care of them after the transfer of the property, they (the parents) can cancel the transfer and children will be legally bound to return the property.
UPSLC Chairman Justice (retired) Aditya Nath Mittal told ANI that he presented the report to the Chief Minister.
"He was very happy. He said that the elders should definitely be respected," Justice Mittal said.
He said the Chief Minister also asked why will society respect those who do not respect their parents.
"It has often been seen that after children get property, they avoid their parents. There is this feeling in their mind that now we have got the property, what is the need of keeping ties with them," he said.
Justice Mittal said most old-age homes have elderly "who have been pushed out of their own house by their children after the transfer of property".
"After studying various provisions made by different state governments in the Senior Citizens Maintenance Welfare Act 2007, the committee submitted its draft report to the Uttar Pradesh government that if elderly parents are not taken care of by their children then they can file an application which will be heard by the state tribunal," he said.
Justice Mittal said the tribunal will take appropriate decision on a compliant including "eviction from their parent's property."
"There is another provision in the Act which states that if a person wants to remove someone from his/her house then they have to file a civil suit for it. A civil lawsuit goes on for long and requires a costly lawyer and the main source for bearing the legal expenses remains the valuation of that property. In such a situation, we have proposed an amendment through which the children and relatives living on the property of the elderly parents will be asked to leave the property," he added.