Punjab & Haryana High Court Imposes 1 Lakh Costs On Man Who Attempted To Illegally Oust His Aged Mother

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday dismissed the petition of a man who had attempted to illegally oust his aged mother and accordingly proceeded to impose costs to the tune of Rs 1 lakh on the petitioner.

Terming the plea filed as an 'unfortunate petition', Justice Arvind Singh Sangwan observed with anguish,

"A perusal of the representation also shows that the same has been filed with oblique motive of harassing his own mother so that on the basis of General Power of Attorney given by her, the petitioner may usurp the house and oust her in old age. This greediness on the part of the petitioner is apparent from the representation given to police as well as from contents of this petition."

In the instant case, the father of the petitioner had executed a will dated November 11, 2013 wherein 50 percent of the share of the house was given to the petitioner and the other 50 percent of the share was provided to his wife i.e. the aged mother of the petitioner. This was done to make sure that the aged mother of the petitioner had a house to live in for the rest of her life.

Subsequently, the petitioner had submitted before the Court that he had received the General Power of Attorney over his mother's share of the property. Dismissing such a contention, the Court opined that from the perusal of the record, it was evident that the petitioner was being dishonest as he intended to 'oust his own mother from the house, who is a senior citizen and further to sell it'.

Accordingly, the Court disposed of the petition by imposing costs on the petitioner. The Chief Judicial Magistrate, SAS Nagar (Mohali) was directed to ensure that costs to the tune of Rs 1 lakh is recovered from the petitioner and subsequently paid to the aged mother of the petitioner within a period of 2 months.

Case Title: Sunny Goyal v. State of Punjab and others

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