RANCHI: In a significant ruling, the Jharkhand High Court has said that elderly parents cannot be forced to tolerate harassment in their own homes.
The court clarified that if elderly parents are mentally or physically abused, their son and daughter-in-law cannot forcibly reside in a house built with their own earnings.
The court acknowledged that the house in question is the senior citizens’ self-acquired property, and therefore, they have full rights over it. While hearing a petition filed by an elderly couple from Ramgarh, the Court of Justice Rajesh Kumar quashed the order of the Deputy Commissioner, who had reversed the order passed earlier by the SDM, directing the son and daughter-in-law to vacate the house in 2022.
The court stated that inheritance rights are linked to the future; they do not grant immediate ownership of the property.
When peaceful coexistence in the same home is impossible, the law firmly stands in favour of the elderly, it said.
The order was passed while hearing a petition filed by 75-year-old Lakhan Lal Poddar and his 72-year-old wife, Uma Rani Poddar, who had approached the HC, alleging that their son, Jitendra Poddar, and daughter-in-law, Ritu Poddar, mistreated them and prevented them from living peacefully in their own home.
In 2022, the couple had filed an application with the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) under the Maintenance Act. On November 23, 2022, the SDM ordered the son and daughter-in-law to vacate the house.
However, an appeal was filed against this decision, following which the Ramgarh Deputy Commissioner, on February 23, 2024, passed an order in their favour and reversed the order passed earlier by the SDM directing the son and daughter-in-law to vacate the house in 2022.
Law matters
Children cannot forcibly reside in a house built with old parents’ earnings, it said
When peaceful coexistence in the same home is impossible, the law stands with the elderly, it added