Ensure strict compliance with law for senior citizens’ welfare: Delhi HC

Delhi State Legal Services Authority also asked to ensure legal aid is provided to them

The Delhi High Court on Thursday ordered the city government to ensure strict compliance with the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, which provides for children to provide maintenance for their parents, and the government to provide old-age homes and ensure medical care for senior citizens.

A Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad also directed the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) to ensure that legal aid is provided to the senior citizens, who come under the Act, and that they are not put to any inconvenience.

With the orders, the Bench closed a public interest litigation (PIL), which it had initiated on its own, based on a letter received by a woman advocate highlighting the state of affairs concerning the implementation of the Act.

Advocate Neha Rai, in her letter dated May 23, 2022, highlighted the state of affairs prevailing in relation to the implementation of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007.

Ms. Rai pointed out that the statutory authorities, namely the District Magistrates and the SDMs (Sub-Divisional Magistrate) are failing in expeditious implementation of the Act. She stated that the “appeals and cries of the senior citizens have to be attended to on an urgent basis to provide them relief, lest their very existence is put in jeopardy”.

The High Court on May 30 had directed all the District Magistrates as well as the SDMs to file their status reports with respect to the individual complaints received by them under the Act and the time within which the same were acted upon.

The court had also called for a status report indicating the total pendency and also the number of complaints received on the website/ helpline number with a complete log, since January 2022.