In a rare judgement, a court in Telangana's Rangareddy district convicted a man and his wife for throwing his mother out of her house and threatening and insulting her. The Nineteenth Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court found the couple guilty and sentenced them to two years of rigorous imprisonment and a penalty of Rs 10,000 each.
Prema Kumari, a resident of Neredmet in Secunderabad, had approached the police in 2015, stating that her elder son, Amit and his wife, Lavanya, had illegally taken possession of her house and kicked her out. Prema's husband had died in 2013.
In 2015, Amit and Lavanya had shifted from their home to Musheerabad, to Prema's house in Neredmet, and allegedly locked her out.
“My elder son has threatened to kill me if I ask about the house. He claims that it is his property and abused me in very vulgar language. My life has been threatened and my elder son Amit would be responsible for it,” Prema's complaint reportedly stated.
The police had registered a case under Sections 341 (Wrongful restraint), 471 (Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 506 (Criminal intimidation) and 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC and arrested the couple and filed a chargesheet.
Delivering the verdict, the court said that Prema, who was living with her other children, could now return to her home.
While the Supreme Court has stated in the past that abusive adult children can be evicted by parents from their own home, there are also laws which ensure the safety of the parents.
The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 states that it was enacted "to provide for more effective provisions for the maintenance and welfare of parents and senior citizens, guaranteed and recognized under the Constitution and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto."