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Suffering of Senior Citizen being In-Laws - Is it FAIR ?
This may come as good news for the daughter-in-law of the family but it's completely a sad and tearful law for the senior citizen in-laws. The Supreme Court of India, on October 15, 2020 revised its previous ruling on the Domestic Violence Act and said that daughters-in-law have the right of 'shared household' even in her in-laws'/joint family's house. In effect, Indian women can now claim residential rights at her in-laws' house both during and after domestic violence proceedings. No sooner this law was passed, its side effects were highlighted- which robs the senior citizen of their rights and mental peace.
The senior citizens who are having their independent life now, will have to stay with their daughter-in-law even though she is at loggerhead with them. This is what the recent Supreme Court judgment says. Earlier, many judges of Hon'ble High Court and Supreme Court had made it very clear that a daughter in law doesn't have any right or living right in the house purchased by or owned by the mother-in-law or father-in-law. In the recent judgment of Supreme Court, a bench of Justice Ashok Bhushan, R S Reddy and M R Shah gave a larger meaning to the word 'shared household'. It is said that a daughter-in-law has right to stay in the house purchased and owned by mother-in-law or father-in-law. The judgment will make the life of senior citizen miserable and in some cases even the son who is having problems with his father and mother will utilise his wife as a tool to blackmail his elderly parents.
In 2005, the Supreme Court of India in its order held that the wife would be entitled to a shared household only if the aggrieved person lives there or had lived in a domestic relationship. Until October 15, 2020 the daughter-in-law couldn't force her in-laws to give her the right to stay in their house if their son and daughter-in-law are in marriage dispute. But now, after the recent judgment, the daughter in law has been given a right to stay in the shared household of the joint family. Before this, if the in-laws have made their own house, they had a choice to restrict their daughter-in-law from residing in their house.
As much as this move serves the purpose of equal rights and residential protection of the daughters-in-law, it overlooks the numerous cases where the in-laws face the collateral damage of the disputed couple. The couple in dispute has nothing to do with the in-laws until they too are incurring loss due to the dispute. Before this ruling, the in-laws were not legally obliged to give a share of the residence/property to the daughter in law. But now the in-laws are not only legally obliged to do so but have to bear the cost of a disputed marriage for no reason. There are cases where the wife has a larger share of fault in the marriage but drags the innocent in-laws for the suffering, where the in-laws are legally obliged to provide the wife with a share of their property. It must be noted that by this law the daughter in law can claim residential rights both during the dispute and after the proceedings of the dispute.
Though, the Supreme Court of India has passed this order but after going through the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 and Senior Citizen Act, this judgment will surely be going to create confusion between the senior citizen for their rights. Though, Senior Citizen Act is based on the welfare and against the harassment of their sons/daughters/daughter-in-law and relatives but the Domestic Violence Act is pro for the aggrieved wife/daughter-in-law. The Supreme of India has clearly said that the elderly cannot use senior citizen act to evict the daughter in law.
In the cases of Domestic Violence where the wife goes through both physical and mental torture and she is left abandoned with nothing but sorrow and pain, this redressal empowers and protects her. However, when its quite the opposite, she can take help of the women-centric laws, prove a domestic violence case against her, and claim the residential rights. In this case, the family of the in-laws has to bear the cost of giving away a share of their ancestral property for no valid reason. There have been times when the in-laws are legally harassed and enquired for the marriage dispute. Marriage is a bond between two people and should be treated that way unless the in-laws play a major role in their daily lives. In the defence of the in-laws, they have no legal protection to assure them or protect them from the women-centric laws which favour the daughter-in-law except the Senior Citizen Act.
To protect the rights of the in-laws, the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act (Senior Citizens Act) was passed to provide maintenance support to elderly parents and senior citizens. Under this law, parents can claim maintenance from adult children and grandchildren for food, residence, clothing etc. It also has provisions to safeguard parents and in-laws in the right to property by giving them the choice to evict the daughter-in-law from their own property in case of family disputes. Though this aims at preventing the former case from happening, there is still a gap between the two laws being exercised. Past judgments have been unable to clarify that in what circumstances the right of daughters-in-law to reside in a shared household under the Domestic Violence Act takes precedence over the right of the parents-in-law to evict the daughter-in-law from their property under the Senior Citizens Act. This law proves to be downright harassment for the in-laws because they end up giving away a hard-earned portion of their savings and property. This gets worse when both wife and husband do not support the senior members of the family.
The recent case I came across was about a daughter in law mentally harassed the husband and in-laws and went to her parent's home. Suddenly, she came back to her matrimonial house and pressurized her in-laws to allow her into the house. But due to the torture and cruelty faced by the hands of the daughter in law; her in-laws didn't allow her to enter the house. Since then the daughter in law often drags them to the police station and Mahila Kendra several times. Not only this, but there are ample number of cases where the dispute is between the husband and wife and wife tends to create extra pressure by dragging her in-laws into the court and police complaint. There are also cases, where the wife provokes the in-laws and husband and misuses the law just to scare her matrimonial family.
Most recently, I came across another case where the couple is married for 3 years. The working wife stayed with the husband for a few months. She had a habit of leaving home on her own and coming back at her own wish. On suggesting them to not allow her entry without asking for a valid reason and instead have a dialogue on the same, she blackmailed the family to accept her and allow her to stay in else, she would lodge a police complaint. The woman cannot just walk in and out of the house with no prior notice or without any justification like she stays in a hotel. In her defence, all she had to do is threaten the family including the in-laws for something that they did not commit.
Two things stand clear. One is that both parties have the legal protection of their rights. Second is, there is no way to keep the in-laws away from the disputed couple or to check whether or not the in-laws have anything to do with the dispute - which means there is no reason to not drag the in-laws in a disputed marriage, wherein making the Domestic Violence Act prone to misuse.
