Point of Law: Law of marriage generally provides for restitution of conjugal rights qua the deserting spouse, is true.

ORDER :

1. Petitioners being the sons of 3rd Respondent-mother aged & ailing lady are knocking at the doors of Writ Court for assailing the order dated 25.05.2022 passed by the 1st Respondent-Deputy Commissioner and the order dated 22.05.2019 passed by the 2nd Respondent-Assistant Commissioner respectively at Annexure-A & B. The Assistant Commissioner has directed the Petitioners to pay to their mother a monthly sum of Rs.5,000/-each. However, the Deputy Commissioner has enhanced it to Rs.10,000/-.

2. Learned counsel for the Petitioners vehemently argues that: Petitioners being the appellants could not have been made worse off in their own appeal; they do not have sufficient means to pay the amount and they are ready & willing to look after their mother and therefore, she should be asked to join their home, leaving the place of her daughters; the mother has claimed maintenance only at the instigation of her daughters and thus the claim lacks bona fide. Learned counsel hastily adds that, all these aspects despite urgement having not been adverted to, the impugned orders suffer from legal infirmities and therefore, are liable to be voided.

3. Learned HCGP appearing for the official Respondent Nos. 1 & 2 and the learned advocate appearing for the mother of Petitioners vehemently oppose the Petition making submission in justification of the impugned orders and the reasons on which they have been structured. Learned HCGP contends that the impugned orders are the products of exercise of discretion by the officials under a socio-welfare legislation namely Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 and therefore the Writ Court exercising a limited supervisory jurisdiction constitutionally vested under Article 227 should abhor to undertake a deeper examination in matters like this vide Sadhana Lodh vs. National Insurance Co. Ltd. (2003) 3 SCC 524.

4. Having heard the learned counsel for the Petitioners and having perused the petition papers, this Court declines indulgence in the matter for the following reasons:

(i) The first submission of the Petitioners that appellants cannot be worse off in their own appeal and therefore the Appellate order is liable to be voided, is bit difficult to countenance. Such a general proposition obtaining in the realm of law of appeals is not invocable in cases arising from socio-welfare legislations like 2007 Act, which is enacted by the Parliament for protecting the interest of senior citizens who are in a hapless position, as rightly contended by learned HCGP. Such a traditional norm that owes its origin to the jurisprudence of Colonial Era cannot be readily invoked to defeat the intent of the statute. It hardly needs to be stated that in effectuating the Parliamentary intent, the authorities are also stakeholders along with the parties to the lis. Had it not been so, perhaps, other factors would have figured for consideration.

(ii) The second submission of learned counsel for the Petitioners that his clients do not have any means to pay the amount directed in terms of impugned orders, is too farfetched an argument and therefore, does not merit countenance. Law, religion & custom mandate sons to look after their parents, and more particularly aged mother. Smrutikaaraas 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. In an ancient scripture of India entitled “Taittiriya Upanisad” it is said that when a student on graduation is leaving the Gurukula (school/college), the guru/teacher gives him the parting message as under:

“May you be one for whom his mother is a Deva.

May you be one for whom his father is a Deva.

May you be one for whom a guest is a Deva.

May you be one for whom his teacher is a Deva.”

Similarly, the Brahmanda Purana says:

ikrdkuka fdykU;s"kka Ák;f'prkfu lUR;fiA

ekr`æqáeosfg Roa u fdafpr~ fdy fu"d`fr%AA

The above shloka nearly translates to: to neglect the parents, particularly in their old ag