Delhi High Court Takes Suo Moto Cognizance Of Poor Implementation Of Senior Citizens Act, Notices Issued To Delhi Govt, DM, SDMs

The Delhi High Court has taken suo moto cognizance over poor implementation of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007. The proceedings in the nature of public interest litigation have been initiated by the Court on its own motion based on a May 23 letter of Advocate Neha Rai, who highlighted the current state of affairs regarding implementing the said Act.

A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Sachin Datta has issued notices to the Delhi government, District Legal Service Authorities, District Magistrate (DM) and and all the Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDMs) in the national capital.

The said letter pointed out that the statutory authorities namely District Magistrate and Sub-Divisional Magistrate are failing in expeditious implementation of the 2007 Act. It was pointed out that a failure to attend to the appeals of the senior citizens denies them the relief, putting their very existence in jeopardy.

The Respondents have been directed to file their responses on the issues highlighted in the letter.

It also directed all the District Magistrates and Sub Divisional Magistrates to file a status report regarding the individual complaints under the 2007 Act, the time within which action was taken on the same, and the time within which the SDMs prepared reports upon physical inspection and verification of contents of the complaints.

The Court has also directed the status reports to indicate the number of complaints received on the website/ helpline number with a complete log from January 1, 2022 onwards.

The Court has directed that the Respondents to ensure that helpline no. is active and functioning.

The matter was posted on July 12, 2022.

Case Title: Court on its own motion v. GNCTD

(Inputs by Shrutika Pandey)