Senior citizens are entitled to maintenance of max ₹10,000 per month: HC

Bombay High Court strikes down Maintenance Tribunal's order for ₹26,000 monthly maintenance to elderly parents, stating maximum allowance under law is ₹10,000 per senior citizen.

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court struck down a Maintenance Tribunal’s order that directed three city residents to pay monthly maintenance of ₹26,000 to their elderly parents. The court emphasised that, as per the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, a senior citizen is entitled to a maximum monthly maintenance of ₹10,000 from children or relatives.

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“The Maintenance Tribunal can order children or relatives to pay maximum maintenance allowance of ₹10,000 to each senior citizen,” said a single judge bench of justice Sandeep Marne while striking down the October 12, 2022, order passed by the tribunal for Mumbai western suburbs.

The parents had approached the tribunal, alleging that their children repeatedly fought with them, abused them, and tried to coerce them to evict them from their residential premises. They sought monthly maintenance, claiming that the children had abandoned them.

Acting on the complaint, the tribunal ordered the two brothers to pay monthly maintenance of ₹10,000 each to their parents – aged 74 years and 73 years, and their sister was ordered to pay them an additional sum of ₹6,000 per month.

A fortnight after the order, one of the brothers and the sister approached the high court, challenging the order on various grounds. They primarily contended that their parents had ₹1.42 crore – received through various modes, including the sale of some ancestral properties, lying in their bank accounts and could be easily taken care of through the interest received on the deposits.

The court rejected the contention after noticing that the children were earning well and were staying separate.

The court, however, accepted the argument advanced on behalf of the petitioner siblings that under the 2007 Act, the tribunal can award maximum maintenance of ₹10,000 and therefore the tribunal could not have ordered the three children to pay a total of ₹26,000 to their elderly parents.

Justice Marne clarified that the Tribunal, under section 9(2) of the 2007 Act can award up to ₹10,000 to each of the senior citizens involved and in the case in hand, since two senior citizens were complainants, the maximum amount ordered by the Maintenance Tribunal could not have exceeded ₹20,000. The court said since the other brother had accepted the tribunal order to pay ₹10,000 to the parents, the court ordered the petitioners to pay the remaining amount of ₹10,000. Thus, the petitioner’s brother would now pay the parents ₹6,000 per month and the sister ₹4,000.