A sessions court has upheld an order of a magistrate court and ordered that a senior citizen’s son and daughter-in-law, against whom she had filed a domestic violence complaint, must leave the Tardeo flat where they had been residing.
The court observed that the 89-year-old woman has spent her entire life with her family in the flat and has feelings attached with that home. The court said that in such circumstances it is certainly not desirable for her to stay away from it.
The octogenarian, who held 50 per cent rights in the property, had approached a Girgaon magistrate court seeking that her son and daughter-in-law be asked to leave the flat.
She had complained that after her husband passed away in 2000, the couple had made her life a living hell after she sought her share in it. She said her son is an alcoholic and picked fights daily, making it impossible for her to live there. She had been residing nearby with her daughter and son-in-law since 2006.
The couple had denied the domestic violence allegations and alleged that they were made at the instance of the woman’s daughter. They further contended that as per a provision of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, a woman cannot be removed from a shared household and hence the daughter-in-law could not have been ordered to leave.
The court noted that the plea may have been filed at the instance of the daughter, but it is necessary to discuss that despite having a 50 per cent share, she has been living at the mercy of her daughter and son-in-law since 2006.
It said that till date her son and daughter-in-law haven’t made any arrangements for her stay and have simply said that she has sufficient means to maintain herself. The court said that this shows that they are reluctant to maintain her and take care of her.
The court also noted that the elderly woman had narrated under oath that her son is an alcoholic and had once caught her by her neck. It also rejected the couple’s contention that the daughter-in-law being a woman cannot be removed from a shared household.
(To receive our E-paper on whatsapp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
