Orissa High Court upheld a tribunal order directing a son to vacate his father’s house, stressing dignity and safety of senior citizens. The Court ruled welfare laws must be interpreted to protect elderly parents’ peaceful living.
The Orissa High Court has upheld an important order protecting the rights of a senior citizen, making it clear that tribunals under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 have the authority to pass necessary directions to ensure elderly parents can live safely and with dignity.
In this case, the Court supported a direction asking a son to vacate a portion of his father’s house so that the aged father could live peacefully. The Court stressed that the law is meant to benefit senior citizens and should be interpreted in a way that actually protects them, rather than being restricted by technicalities.
Justice Ananda Chandra Behera dismissed writ petitions filed by both the father and the son, thereby upholding the order dated 07.08.2025 passed by the Sub-Collector-cum-Presiding Officer of the Senior Citizens Tribunal, Bhubaneswar.
The Tribunal had directed the son to vacate the ground floor of their ancestral house so that the father could reside there without disturbance. At the same time, the Tribunal had clarified that disputes related to property ownership were civil matters and should be decided separately by appropriate courts.
The dispute was between an 86-year-old father and his son over a two-storey ancestral house located in Baramunda, Bhubaneswar. The father approached the Tribunal under the 2007 Act, alleging that he had faced harassment, humiliation, and was even forced out of his own home by his son.
He also claimed that some properties purchased in his son’s name were actually bought using his own money and sought their return.
After considering the complaint and a police report about the alleged mistreatment, the Tribunal passed several directions. It asked both parties to maintain peace, directed the son to avoid abusive behaviour, and most importantly, ordered the son to vacate the ground floor of the house and hand over possession to the father so he could live safely.
Both the father and the son challenged this order before the High Court. The son wanted the eviction direction to be cancelled, while the father challenged the Tribunal’s refusal to decide ownership and restoration of properties transferred to the son.
The High Court examined whether the Tribunal’s order—asking the son to vacate part of the house while not deciding property ownership—was legally correct.
The Court looked closely at the purpose and scheme of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 and noted that it is a welfare law meant to ensure dignity, protection, and social justice for elderly people. The Court emphasized that such laws must be interpreted in a liberal and purposeful way to achieve their objective.
The Court observed that the facts showed the father, who is an elderly widower, wanted to live in his own ancestral house, while the son continued to occupy it. It also noted that due to strained relations, the father had been forced to move between the homes of his other sons.
Considering these facts, the Court held that the Tribunal’s direction asking the son to vacate the ground floor was fully in line with the purpose of the Act, which is to ensure that senior citizens can live with safety and dignity. The Court made it clear that allowing the father to live in his own house at such an advanced age is exactly what the law intends to protect.
On the issue of property ownership, the Court agreed with the Tribunal that such disputes are civil in nature and should be decided by competent courts. Since those matters were already pending elsewhere, the Tribunal was right in not deciding them under the 2007 Act.
The Court also referred to Rule 19 of the Orissa Maintenance of Parents and Senior Citizens Rules, 2009, which requires that orders under the Act must ensure that senior citizens can live with security and dignity. It held that the Tribunal’s order met this requirement.
In the end, the High Court rejected the challenges made by both the father and the son. It ruled that the Tribunal had acted within its powers and had properly balanced the situation by protecting the father’s right to live peacefully while leaving property disputes to be decided separately.
Accordingly, both writ petitions were dismissed.
Case Title:
Himanshu Sekhar Sahoo v. Babaji Charan Sahoo & Anr. and connected matter
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