COIMBATORE: An octogenarian and his ailing wife were granted financial relief by the Coimbatore District Family Court Judge, who ordered the couple’s three sons to give a cumulative amount of `21,000 each month as a ‘livelihood assistance’ to their parents.
In addition, the court has ruled that the three men owe their parents a cumulative amount of `17.5 lakhs (since the start of the case).
M Kanagaraj, a senior lawyer who represented the two petitioners, SG Shanmuga Sundaram (85) and his bed-ridden wife Sivagami Ammal (75) from Vilankurichi, said that the couple had accrued assets valued at more than `18 crores. The assets included ancestral property, land and a house.
In 2006, Shanmuga Sundaram agreed to partition the assets equally among his three sons - Palanisamy (55), Boopathy (53) and Selvaraj (51), all of whom were married and well-settled.
In return, he was given an oral assurance by his sons that they would each pay Shanmuga Sundaram `10,000 per month.
The money was to be used by Sundaram for himself and his wife’s monthly expenditure, and also for Sivagami Ammal’s medical expenses.
However, after just a couple of months, the three sons failed to fulfil the promise.
Aggrieved that they were now left without both their property and the promised financial assistance, the couple approached the family court in 2008.
During the course of trial, a Court-appointed Commissioner was even sent to obtain the testimony of Sivagami Ammal, who was bed-ridden. The Judge of the family Court in Coimbatore ordered that if the sons fail to pay the money as ordered by the court , the court can attach their properties,” said advocate Kanagaraj.