CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has ruled that district collectors or sub collectors cannot function as civil court in deciding the question of fraud on settlement deeds under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007.
Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy gave the ruling recently while quashing the orders of the Salem collector confirming an order of the sub-collector who had rejected an application filed by an elderly woman, Papathi, seeking cancellation of the settlement deed she had executed in favour of her grandson for handing her property.
Papthi had alleged she was deceived to sign the papers of settlement deed by her son by concealing the name of the grandson. She approached the sub collector for cancelling the settlement deed alleging she was thrown out of the property and was not taken care of by her son.
“Section 23 of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 does not enable the sub collector or the district collector to function as a civil court to decide questions of fraud, undue influence, coercion etc, alleged to have perpetrated on the petitioner,” the judge said in the order.
He stated the petitioner can approach the civil court if she wants to raise the issue of fraud in executing the settlement deed.
The settlement deed was registered with the sub registrar, Omalur, on November 19, 2021. After she was thrown out of the property, she submitted an application with the Mettur sub collector for cancelling the settlement deed. The sub collector rejected her application following the submission of her son that she has been receiving family pension after his father, a government employee, passed away. Since she has been getting the pension, she cannot claim she has no means to meet the expenses, he had stated.
The sub collector rejected the woman’s application, necessitating her to approach the district collector who had confirmed the rejection order on September 24, 2025.