Senior citizen’s plea to evict daughter-in-law from house rejected by HC

The woman on her part argued that her father-in-law was trying to highlight the fact that he was a senior citizen and trying to dispossess her of what was rightfully hers.

The plea by a senior citizen for eviction of his daughter-in-law from his residence for harassing him and filing criminal case against him and his family members has been dismissed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC).

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The HC bench of justice RK Jain said the plea of the 64-year-old Phase-7 resident of Mohali under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 was not maintainable.

The senior citizen had argued that his daughter-in-law had no rights to his house and could not live there as her husband, his son, was living separately. The property could not be a shared household, HC was told.

The woman on her part argued that her father-in-law was trying to highlight the fact that he was a senior citizen and trying to dispossess her of what was rightfully hers. The eviction of the son was not sought from the premises, she contended.

She also charged her husband of joining hands with his father to evict her from the property by taking advantage of the provisions of the Senior Citizens Act because of a matrimonial discord between them.

Both the father and son were conniving with each other for seeking the woman’s eviction, HC said. The law provided for dispossession of a son, daughter or legal heir. According to Section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, however, if a husband was alive, the daughter-in-law will not fall within the definition of legal heir, the HC bench added.

The HC ruled that the petition was not maintainable because the senior citizen had only tried to evict his daughter-in-law from the house because of a dispute.