Youngsters neglecting aged parents is not a happy development: HC

“Nowadays a section of youngsters is failing to look after the aged and ailing parents, and the number is swelling. This is not a happy development,” the High Court of Karnataka has observed while rejecting a petition filed by two persons, who challenged a direction given to them by a tribunal to pay monthly maintenance to their 84-year-old mother.

“Nowadays a section of youngsters is failing to look after the aged and ailing parents, and the number is swelling. This is not a happy development,” the High Court of Karnataka has observed while rejecting a petition filed by two persons, who challenged a direction given to them by a tribunal to pay monthly maintenance to their 84-year-old mother.

“Law, religion and custom mandate sons to look after their parents, and more particularly aged mother. Smrutikaras say: ‘rakshanti sthavire putra …’ , nearly meaning that it is the duty of son to look after his mother who is in the evening of her life,” the court said.

“...To neglect the parents, particularly in their old age, when they become weak and dependent and to cause anguish, is a heinous act for which there is no atonement available,” the court while translating the meaning of a sloka from Brahmanda Purana.

Justice Krishna S. Dixit made these observations while rejecting a petition filed by Gopal, 50, and Mahesh, 40, both residents of Mysuru, questioning the order by the tribunal, constituted under the provisions of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007.

The virtuous idea was that one should respect and serve one’s parents, guests and gurus, before one worships the Almighty. This had been the tradition of this land since centuries, the court pointed out.

The petitioners contended that they had no means to pay maintenance to their mother but they were willing to look after their mother and therefore, she should be asked to join their home, leaving the place of her daughters. The mother had claimed maintenance only at the instigation of her daughters, it was contended by the sons.

“If an able-bodied person is bound to maintain his dependent wife, there is no reason why such a rule should not apply when it comes to the case of a dependent mother,” the court said, while pointing out that the petitioners were able-bodied persons as it was not that they were weak and not capable of earning.