HC upholds eviction of couple from man’s parents’ flat

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has upheld eviction of a couple from the flat owned by the man’s parents in Dahisar, observing that the Senior Citizen’s Maintenance Tribunal has the power to evict abusive sons and daughters-in-law

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has upheld eviction of a couple from the flat owned by the man’s parents in Dahisar, observing that the Senior Citizen’s Maintenance Tribunal has the power to evict abusive sons and daughters-in-law.

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On April 10 this year, the 38-year-old man’s parents moved the tribunal at Bandra, complaining about harassment by their son and his 40-year-old wife, and demanding their eviction from the flat in Dahisar owned by the elderly couple. They stated that disputes between them and their son and daughter-in-law started soon after they got married in 2020, and the Dahisar police had registered non-cognizable cases against them based on complaints filed by their daughter-in-law. On October 23, the sub-divisional officer at Bandra who heads the tribunal for the western suburbs directed the appellant’s son and daughter-in-law to vacate the house.

The couple moved high court after this. They admitted that the Dahisar flat was owned by the man’s parents but contended that the tribunal had no authority or powers under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 to evict them. They also claimed that the man’s parents wanted to rent out two bedrooms in their flat and were seeking to evict them for this purpose. The couple’s counsel also submitted that the tribunal could not have entertained the complaint, as the mother of the man had not completed 60 years of age on the date of filing the complaint.

Sarthak Diwan, appointed by the court to represent the parents, pointed out that the father was a senior citizen on the date of filing of the complaint and therefore there was no impediment in the tribunal entertaining the complaint. He also submitted judgements to negate the petitioner couple’s claim that the tribunal had no powers to evict them.

A single judge bench of justice Rajesh Patil rejected the couple’s arguments, noting that in cases where the property was owned by senior citizens or parents, the presiding officer of the tribunal had enough power to pass orders of eviction. The court also rejected the couple’s plea of a stay on the eviction order so they could file an appeal in the apex court.

In a similar case, in December 2021, the Bombay high court had upheld a July 2021 order of the Mumbai District Senior Citizens Tribunal, directing the abusive son and daughter-in-law of an 89-year-woman to vacate her flat in Ghatkopar.

The elderly woman had approached the tribunal in October 2020 complaining that after her husband expired in March 2017, her son, daughter-in-law and their son and daughter-in-law moved into her flat. The son insisted that the woman transfer all ancestral properties to him exclusively and not to give any share to his two married sisters. He also assaulted her and forced her to shift to her daughter’s residence when she refused.

The high court had upheld the tribunal’s order, observing that it was “a classic case where son and grandson had left no stone unturned to make the life of the grandmother a living hell.”