RUPA. V Vs. SMT. K. SARASWATHY AMMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The parents, the first and second respondents, complained under Section 5 of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 ("the Act, 2007"): that the first and second respondents--daughter-in-law and son--neglected to look after them. To be specific, the first respondent-mother settled a piece of property on her son. On that property, he constructed a house with the funds allegedly provided by his parents. Though the settlement was conditional, the son, instigated by his wife, neglected to maintain the parents. They evicted the parents from the house. Under those circumstance, the parents approached the Tribunal.

(2.) When the Tribunal passed an order in parents' favour, the daughter-in-law, who by then allegedly purchased the property from her husband, approached this Court, contending that neither she nor her husband had been heard before the Tribunal could pass the order. As a result, this Court remanded the matter to the Tribunal and, on remand, the Tribunal passed Ext.P6 order--granting maintenance, but without affecting the property.

(3.) Assailing Ext.P6 order, the parents filed a statutory appeal, claiming that they should have the property restored to them in terms of Section 23 of the Act. But the appeal was dismissed.