‘Pious Duty Of Son To Maintain Old Aged Father:’ Jharkhand HC Dismisses Son's Plea Against Direction To Pay ₹3000 As Monthly Maintenance To His Father
The Jharkhand High Court has affirmed the Order of a Family Court that had directed the younger son of a father to provide him with a monthly maintenance of Rupees 3000.
The Court noted that the father was a senior citizen who had been residing with his elder son while his younger son had been residing separately for more than last 15 years. The younger son had been cultivating and earning from the land his father transferred to him.
A Single Bench of Justice Subhash Chand observed “the father is having some agricultural land yet is not able to cultivate the same. He also depends upon his elder son, with whom, he resides. Even if for the sake of argument, the father earns something; it is pious duty of a son to maintain his old aged father.”
Advocate Bharat Kumar represented the petitioner, while APP Shashi Kumar Verma appeared for the State/opposite party.
The father argued that he had transferred his land equally between his two sons. However, the younger son, instead of providing maintenance, abused, insulted, and assaulted his father. Despite having a monthly income from his shop and an annual income from agricultural lands, he was not maintained by his younger son.
The younger son on the other hand had submitted that his father was a “habitual litigant of the society and several cases are being litigated by him in different Courts of Koderma.” He further argued that his father was ‘money minded’ and had many sources of income and that the maintenance application was filed to harass him.
The Family Court had directed the son to pay maintenance to his father under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Since the income of the younger son was not formally evaluated by the family court, the High Court tentatively assessed it to be Rs.30,000/- per month and held that it was only 1/10th of what the the family court had directed him to pay “to the father, who has given birth to his son and brought up him and has also given the house, which he has built comprising therein 12 rooms, two acres of agricultural land.”
The Court referred to a religious quote and observed: "In Hinduism the importance of parents is shown, which is quoted as under: “If your Parents are confident you feel confident, if they are sad you will feel sad. Father is your God and Mother is your Nature. They are the seed you are the Sapling. No whatever good or bad they have in them, even inactive, will become a tree in you. So you inherit your parent’s good and bad both. A person carries some debts due to being born and that includes debt (Spiritual) of Father and Mother which we have to repay.”"
The High Court held that the impugned Order passed by the Family Court needed no interference and accordingly, dismissed the criminal revision
Cause Title: Manoj Kumar @ Manoj Sao v. The State of Jharkhand & Anr.
