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Recognizing the facts provided above and believing that preventing growth of
destitution in society is one of the major objectives of any social legislation, the law
makers created provision for maintenance of parents and senior citizens as a duty upon
their children under the section 125 of Criminal Procedure Code(CRPC)
MAIN PROVISIONS:
Section 125 -128 of Criminal Procedure Code provide for a speedy, effective and
rather inexpensive remedy against persons who neglect or refuse to maintain their
dependant parents, to ensure that these neglected parents are not left beggared and
destituted on the scrap heap of society and thereby driven to a life of vagrancy,
immorality and crime for their subsistence. It may also be noted that as the exercise of
powers to grant maintenance is of a judicial character, only Judicial Magistrates of First
Class have been empowered to deal with such matters of maintenance.
Main Provisions Regarding Grant of Maintenance:
Section 125(1)(d): If any person having sufficient means neglects or refuses to maintain
his father or mother, unable to maintain himself or herself, a Magistrate of first class may,
upon proof of such neglect or refusal, order such person to make a monthly allowance for
the maintenance of his parents; at such rate in the whole, as such Magistrate thinks fit,
and to pay the same to such person as the Magistrate may from time to time direct.
Section 125(3): If any person so ordered fails without sufficient cause to comply with the
order, any such Magistrate may, for every breach of the order, issue a warrant for levying
the amount due in the manner provided for levying fixes or may punish imprisonment
him for a term which can be extended to one month or until payment is made.
Procedure: The main procedure to be followed by the Magistrate while
conducting proceedings under section 125 has been prescribed by sub-sections (2) and (3)
of section 126 is provided below:
i) All evidence in such proceeding shall be taken in the presence of the person against
whom an order for payment of maintenance is proposed to be made, or, when his
personal attendance is dispensed with, in the presence of his pleader, and shall be
recorded in the manner prescribed for summon cases:
Provided that if the Magistrate is satisfied that the person against whom an order
for payment of maintenance is proposed to be made is willfully avoiding service, or
willfully neglecting to attend the court, the Magistrate may proceed to hear and determine
the case ex parte and any order so made may be set aside for good cause shown on
application made within three months from the date thereof subject to such terms
including terms as to payment of costs to the opposite party as the Magistrate may think
just and proper.
Alteration in Allowance: On proof of a change in the circumstances of any
person, receiving under section 125 a monthly allowance or ordered under the same
section to pay monthly allowance to his father or mother, the Magistrate may make such
alteration in the allowance as he thinks fit.
But these provisions in the new age proved to be a bit outdated and the whole procedure
was pretty expensive and time consuming. So, the law makers of India introduced the
Maintenance and Welfare of Parents of Senior Citizens Act, 2007 on 29th December,
2007. This act has proven to be a revolution for senior citizens it has barred the
indulgence of advocates in family matters; just file a simple application in the
maintenance tribunal and to get justice and that also within 90 days. It’s so simple the
whole procedure that it avoids chances of any kind of harassment, exploitation or abuse
to the elderly in courts or Government offices.
The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007
MAIN PROVISIONS
Children, under section 2(a) include son, daughter, grandson and grand-daughter, but
does not include a minor.
Under section 2(d) a parent means father or mother whether biological, adoptive or
stepfather or step mother, as the case may be whether or not the father or mother is a
senior citizen.
Under section 2(h) senior citizen means any citizen of India who have attained the age of
60 years or more.
Welfare under section 2(k) means provision for food, health care, recreation centre and
other amenities necessary for the senior citizens.
A senior citizen including parent who is unable to maintain himself from his own carning
or out of the property owned by him, shall be entitled to make an application under
section 5 in case of:
i) Parent or grand-parent, against one or more of his children not being a
minor;
ii) A childless senior citizen, against such of his relative referred to in section
2(g)
Any person being a relative of a senior citizen and having sufficient means shall maintain
such senior citizen provided he is in possession of the property of such senior citizen or
he would inherit the property of such senior citizen.
The Act provides for justice in just a time period of 90 days after the filing of
application to the Tribunal, also during the pendency of the proceedings regarding
monthly allowance, under section 5 the Tribunal may order such children or relative to
make a monthly allowance for the interim maintenance of such senior citizen.
Another important provision of the act is mentioned under section 17, which says
‘notwithstanding anything contained in any law, no party to a proceeding before a
Tribunal or Appellate Tribunal shall be represented by a legal practitioner.’ This
provision helps the senior citizens by not forcing them to pay heavy fees of advocates.
In Chapter III section 19 the act lays down rules for the State Government to establish
and maintain a number of oldage homes at accessible places, beginning with at least one
in each district to accommodate in such homes a minimum of one hundred fifty senior
citizens who are indigent.
Another important provision is included in Chapter IV under Section 20 which says that
the State Government shall ensure that-
Given below are some real life cases of Elder Abuse in India. These cases though
are only a tip of the iceberg !
Each case is a story of abandonment, harassment and torture. Each case reveals glaring
violations of HUMAN RIGHTS of the old and the infirm. Each case shows how one’s
own children can commit such INHUMAN Acts.
Though Elder Abuse can have perpetrators outside one’s own family too… but then the
majority of cases happen when the elderly people’s own family is not treating them well.
(A) Old Mothers are abandoned
Widowed elderly women who are dependent on their children are badly treated by
them. In majority of cases the perpetrators think that by abandoning them on streets they
would be able to rid themselves of their responsibility
Ram pyari: A 75-year-old woman was found abandoned near a bus stand in Patparganj
area in East Delhi on Sunday morning. The woman, suffering from breathing problems
and a fractured arm, lay writhing in pain on the roadside till passersby called the police.
Ram Pyaari, the victim, said that she was often beaten up and denied food by the elder of
her two sons, Govind and his wife Sonia. They are living in Trilokpuri.
Her younger son Sonu, who is unemployed, brought the elderly woman to the Patparganj
bus stand and left her there.
“Sonu told me that he is going to fetch money from Uttam Nagar. With that money he
would send me to Rajasthan where my daughter lives. I have been lying here since
morning as he has not returned,” said Ram Pyaari, crying hysterically.
After she was found lying on a roadside, Hindustan Times contacted Deputy
Commissioner of Police (East) Ajay Chaudhry whose team came to the rescue of the
woman.
Ram Pyaari said that she was being harassed continuously by her elder son, and that he
often kept denied her food and water for days.
“A few days ago Govind beat me up. He broke my right hand, I am unable to move it
now. His wife tells me that I am a burden for them since I am not earning. My health
does not allow me to work, I want to die instead of living such a humiliating life,” said
Ram Pyaari.
The elderly woman was not even able to give her address but she knew directions to her
son’s home. When a police team reached Govind’s house, here is what he had to say,
“We refuse to take care of her. When she sold the house, she did not give us any money.
She is ill and defecates in the house, I am not going to clean the mess. I have four
children. Who will take responsibility if they catch any disease from her?”
The daughter-in-law said that Ram Pyaari’s younger son Sonu should take care of her as
she had given him the money after selling the house.
“Sonu does not want to take responsibility of his mother, all this when she gave him the
money after selling the house. How can we take care of her? I only ask her to stay clean. I
have too much work and can't cook for her,” said Sonia, the daughter-in-law.
Govind agreed to keep the elderly woman in the house only after the police threatened to
slap a criminal case against him.
“We will keep an eye on Govind. If he misbehaves again, we will approach the protection
officer who takes down complaints on domestic violence. We will then take action
against him,” said DCP Ajay Chaudhry.
Chinnammal Palaniappan, who is thought to be 75, told locals who found her she was
driven miles from home in a cattle feed cart and dumped by family members.
She is in the care of local officials while they try to trace her relatives.
Tamil Nadu state Social Welfare Minister Dr Poongothai told the BBC she was
"horrified" at the news.
"Once we know who the family members are we are going to take legal action against
them," Dr Poongothai told the BBC Tamil service.
She said she believed the woman was partially deaf and had not been fed properly for
three days. "She is under the custody of the state at the moment, and she is being looked
after. The police are trying to talk to her."
'Moaning'
Locals in Erode district of the state told the AFP news agency of their horror at finding
the ill woman lying amidst rotting garbage.
"We heard some moaning from the dump yard and when we went over we were shocked
to find an old shrivelled woman lying in filth," housewife P Mohanasundari said.
She and her husband took the woman home and fed her before alerting charity workers.
"Chinnammal broke down recalling how her grandsons put her in their motorcart, which
they used for transporting cattle feed, and drove a long distance before dumping her in
garbage," Mohanasundari told AFP.
She said the grandmother had recalled how her daughter told her grandsons to leave her
far away, so she would not be able to find her way home.
"There was no anger in her, only a flood of sorrow as she begged us to take her back to
her daughter," Mohanasundari said.
'Vulnerable'
Elderly people have traditionally been looked after by their families in India, although
this is starting to change with the pressures of modern life.
Dr Poongothai conceded that social change was making old people more vulnerable.
But she said the law was clear and if children did not take responsibility for looking after
their old parents they could be in breach of the domestic violence act and prosecuted.
This is another way of harassing the elderlies in India. An abuser of law would
find it pretty easy to crucify old people at home by taking undue refuge in law in the
guise of ’seeking protection’.
False ‘Dowry harassment’ charges to torture in-laws: This seems to be the easiest way to
harass old people in India (despite what Amnesty International prefers to believe).
False bogus dowry harassment charges are filed by miscreants without any fear
whatsoever.
And why no fear ?
Because there are absolutely no penalties for filing false dowry harassment charges in
India ! And also because a mere complaint is enough to arrest without investigation (the
offence is cognizable) and what when the fabricators of ‘false dowry harassment charges’
themselves are perpetrators of Elder Abuse in family ?
Or do the government or women NGOs prefer to believe that even in genuine cases
of dowry harassment it is OK if Elder Abuse is committed in one’s defense ???
Infact both Judiciary and Police are aware of such malpractices. Even the legislators are
aware of rampant misuse of anti-Dowry Laws but they fear speaking openly about them.