Senior Citizens Act - Transfer Can Be Set Aside Only If Was Subject To Condition Of Providing Basic Amenities : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has held that Section 23 of Senior Citizens Act will be attracted only if the transfer of property by a senior citizen was subject to a condition of providing the basic amenities and basic physical needs to him/her.

In this case, a petition was filed by a senior citizen woman under Section 23 of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 (Senior Citizens Act) alleging that her son and daughters were not maintaining her and therefore the release deed executed by her in favour of her two daughters has to be declared void. The Maintenance Tribunal allowed the petition and declared the release deed null and void. The Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld this order.

Before the Apex Court, the appellant- daughters contended that there is no material placed on record to even indicate that the execution of the release deed was vitiated by fraud or coercion or undue influence. The respondent-senior citizen supported the impugned order.

The bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Abhay S. Oka referred to Section 23 and noted that for attracting sub-section (1) of Section 23, the following two conditions must be fulfilled:

1. The transfer must have been made subject to the condition that the transferee shall provide the basic amenities and basic physical needs to the transferor; 
2. The transferee refuses or fails to provide such amenities and physical needs to the transferor. 

The court observed:

"If both the aforesaid conditions are satisfied, by a legal fiction, the transfer shall be deemed to have been made by fraud or coercion or undue influence. Such a transfer then becomes voidable at the instance of the transferor and the Maintenance Tribunal gets jurisdiction to declare the transfer as void.. When a senior citizen parts with his or her property by executing a gift or a release or otherwise in favour of his or her near and dear ones, a condition of looking after the senior citizen is not necessarily attached to it. On the contrary, very often, such transfers are made out of love and affection without any expectation in return. Therefore, when it is alleged that the conditions mentioned in sub-section (1) of Section 23 are attached to a transfer, existence of such conditions must be established before the Tribunal."

The court noted that it is not even pleaded that the release deed was executed subject to a condition that the transferees (the daughters) would provide the basic amenities. Therefore, it set aside the order passed by the Tribunal.

Case details

Sudesh Chhikara vs Ramti Devi | 2022 LiveLaw (SC) 1011 | CA  174 OF 2021 | 6 Dec 2022 | Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Abhay S. Oka

For Appellant(s) Mr. Kanhaiya Singhal, AOR Mr. Arshid Bashir, Adv. For Respondent(s) Mr. Sunil Fernandes, AOR Mr. P. Ramesh, Adv. Ms. Nupur Kumar, Adv. Ms. Diksha D., Adv. Mr. Divyansh Tiwari, Adv. Mr. Divakar Kumar, AOR Mr. Gagan Gupta, AOR

Headnotes

Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 ; Section 23 - Effecting transfer subject to a condition of providing the basic amenities and basic physical needs to the transferor – senior citizen is sine qua non for applicability of Section 23(1) - When it is alleged that the conditions mentioned in Section 23(1) are attached to a transfer, existence of such conditions must be established before the Tribunal. (Para 13-14)

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