SC comes down on Delhi-based brothers for refusing monetary maintenance to father

NEW DELHI:  The Supreme Court came down heavily at two brothers for resisting monetary maintenance to their father, who has been forced to fend for himself in the twilight of his life.

A bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar told the lawyer of the brothers that they cannot treat their father like this and that giving him adequate maintenance was a duty cast on them under the law. "You are not doing any favour to him. He is your father. It has been submitted before us that both of you are working in MNCs. Don’t forget that you are everything because of him," the judge told the sons.

The bench's observation came after the father’s counsel pointed out that the duo was also in possession of ancestral property and was getting rental income from it. "Even this property has come to you because of your father. How can you two now enjoy it without giving him his monetary share at least?" the bench questioned.

The case relates to a family in Delhi. While the two sons live with their wives and children in the ancestral house in the Karol Bagh area, the father was forced to move out. The bench asked the sons to work out a decent arrangement so that their father could live well. The top court also opined that Rs 7,000 per month was not sufficient.

A tribunal court had ordered the two sons to pay Rs 7,000 as maintenance to their father. But, they challenged the order in the Delhi HC citing provisions of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007. The high court admitted the petition and stayed the tribunal court’s order to pay maintenance, forcing the father to move the Supreme Court.