Jul

11

Indian courts speak up for elderly parental rights

July 11, 2009 posted by indiatime |

“If it came to taking sides in an argument between your parents and your wife, who would you side with?”, a contestant on a popular Indian reality TV show was asked the other day. “My wife, of course…”, came the quick reply. A ruling by Hyderabad high court yesterday, promises to add fuel to the eternal fire that has raged in Indian households since time immemorial.

The Hyderabad court ruled that parents could demand maintenance from any or all of their children, and need not have to worry about the choice. Meaning, it would be up to the parents to decide which of their children to depend on for financial support.

The matter came to the court because a petitioner argued to include his siblings’ names in a maintenance lawsuit his own mother brought against him. By giving the parents the latitude and the discretion to pick and choose whom to pursue (and sue), the court has, yet again within the last few years, elaborated upon the parental and the elderly rights. Just recently, Indian parliament passed a bill to punish those who who mistreat or neglect their parents. Soon after came the recommendation about adding surviving elderly fathers to the list of heirs of someone who died without making a specific will. Yesterday’s Hyderabad court ruling asserts the elderly parents’ rights a step further, by lifting a burden off of them, to be accountable and answerable in asking to be supported.

Unlike in the west, where majority of the children move out of their parents’ homes after high schools, most adult children in India still live with their parents until they get married, and many will still live with parents after marriage in a joint family situation. Which of course, begs some more responsibility on part of the adult children, who, after getting the financial support for their own education and marriage and maintenance, see no evil in throwing their parents under the bus once they themselves become heads of the households.

The issue has a lot more facets though, and the courts have surely not heard the last of these lawsuits. What happens if the elderly parents demand that their married daughter support them? What is the adult child they choose to be supported by, loses his or her job or dies? Does the burden of maintenance then shift to the surviving child or the grandchildren? What about parents of adopted children? Should or can the law also force the non-resident or ex-pat Indians to support their parents back home? What about elderly parents with additional medical needs and assistance? Does the supporting child get a tax break?

Gone are the ancient days when elderly Indian kings asked their sons to exchange their old age, so the old kings could become young again and pursue the pleasures of flesh while the obedient son suffered an untimely old age and watched his classmates and young maidens have fun with dad. Today’s elderly are a lot less luckier in that regard. But a little maintenance they shall have, and so say our top courts.


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