A sessions court upheld a magisterial court's order that the son and daughter-in-law of a senior citizen, against whom he had filed a domestic violence complaint, leave the Tardeo flat where they were staying.
The court said the 89-year-old woman has spent her entire life in the flat with her family and she is deeply attached to it. According to the court, it is certainly not desirable to stay away from it in such circumstances.
The 80-year-old, who owns 50 per cent of the assets, had asked the Girgaum magistrate court to order her son and daughter-in-law to leave the flat.
She had complained that after her husband's death in 2000, her life was made hell after the couple demanded her share in the property. She claims that her son is an alcoholic who fights daily, which makes it impossible for him to be there. She had been living nearby since 2006 with her daughter and son-in-law.
The couple had denied the allegations of domestic violence, claiming that they were made at the request of the woman's daughter. He also claimed that under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, a woman cannot be evicted from a shared household, hence the daughter-in-law could not be ordered to leave.
The court said that the petition was filed on the request of the daughter, but it is necessary to discuss how, despite having a 50% share, she has been living at the mercy of her daughter and son-in-law since 2006.
It was said that her son and daughter-in-law did not make any arrangement for her stay and simply said that she had sufficient means to maintain herself. The court said this reflects their reluctance to maintain and take care of him.
The court also noted that the elderly woman testified under oath that her son was an alcoholic who once held him by the neck. It also rejected the couple's argument that since the daughter-in-law is a woman, she cannot be evicted from the shared household.