NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has upheld the validity of a rule allowing senior citizens or parents to seek the eviction of their children or legal heirs from their property in cases of non-maintenance and ill-treatment.
A bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia upheld Rule 22(3)(1) of the Delhi Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Rules, allowing elderly parents or senior citizens to approach the District Magistrate for eviction of their children or legal heirs.
The court dismissed a plea filed by Punam, who had challenged an eviction order passed by the Divisional Commissioner of Delhi in favour of her mother-in-law.
Punam, who married the senior citizen’s son in 1996 and has two children, had approached the court amid matrimonial discord. She had filed proceedings under the Domestic Violence Act seeking protection of her residence in her mother-in-law’s property.
Punam argued that the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act did not expressly provide for eviction proceedings and that the rules exceeded the state government’s rule-making powers.
The court held that the provision could not be declared ‘ultra vires’.
Punam claimed that the District Magistrate had rejected her mother-in-law’s eviction application in February 2021, but the Divisional Commissioner allowed the appeal in July 2022 and directed her to vacate the premises.
The High Court upheld the eviction order, noting that Punam was employed as a postgraduate teacher, earned a substantial income and had a separate house.
It also held that her claim to reside in the shared household was not absolute and had to be considered alongside her mother-in-law’s right to live peacefully.
The court said the provision was intended to provide relief to senior citizens and parents facing non-maintenance and ill-treatment.