The main legal point established in the judgment is that the right of appeal under Section 16 of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 is not available to children and relatives, as the wording of the section is clear and unambiguous.

JUDGMENT

Arijit Banerjee, J. - A short but important question of law falls for determination in this appeal directed against the judgement and order dated 11 December, 2019 passed by a learned Single Judge in W.P.A. No. 1033 of 2019.

2. The question is whether Section 16 of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 (hereinafter referred to as the said Act) confers a right of appeal against an order of the Maintenance Tribunal constituted under Section 7 of the Act only on senior citizens and parents, to the exclusion of children and relatives as defined in Section 2 of the said Act.

3. The appellant No. 1 is the daughter-in-law of the respondent no. 6. The appellant no. 2 is the son of the respondent no. 6. On an application made by the respondent no. 6 before the Maintenance Tribunal, an order dated November 26, 2019 was passed by the Learned Tribunal directing the writ petitioners/appellants to vacate the house belonging to the respondent no. 6. This order was challenged by the appellants before the learned Single Judge.

4. It was submitted on behalf of the writ petitioners that the procedure prescribed in Section 5 of the said Act was not followed by the Learned Tribunal and, therefore, the writ court should set aside the order of the Learned Tribunal. It was submitted on behalf of the respondent no. 6 that the procedure under Section 5 of the Act had been complied with and, furthermore, since an appeal lies against the impugned order of the Learned Tribunal under Section 16 of the said Act, the writ petition should not be entertained.

5. The Learned Judge held that there was an alternative and efficacious remedy available to the writ petitioners and no exception with regard to lack of jurisdiction and/or violation of the principle of natural justice was present in the facts of the case. Accordingly, the Learned Judge disposed of the writ petition with liberty to the writ petitioners to approach the appropriate Forum within a period of ten days from the date of the order.

6. This order of the Learned Single Judge is assailed before us by the writ petitioners in the present appeal.

7. We have heard learned counsel for the appellants and learned counsel for the respondent no. 6.

8. Section 16 of the said Act reads as follows:-

"(1) Any senior citizen or a parent, as the case may be, aggrieved by an order of a Tribunal may, within sixty days from the date of the order, prefer an appeal to the Appellate Tribunal:

Provided that on appeal, the children or relative who is required to pay any amount in terms of such maintenance order shall continue to pay to such parent the amount so ordered, in the manner directed by the Appellate Tribunal:

Provided further that the Appellate Tribunal may, entertain the appeal after the expiry of the said period of sixty days, if it is satisfied that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from preferring the appeal in time.

(2) On receipt of an appeal, the Appellate Tribunal shall, cause a notice to be served upon the respondent.

(3) The Appellate Tribunal may call for the record of proceedings from the Tribunal against whose order the appeal is preferred.

(4) The Appellate Tribunal may, after examining the appeal and the records called for either allow or reject the appeal.

(5) The Appellate Tribunal shall, adjudicate and decide upon the appeal filed against the order of the Tribunal and the order of the Appellate Tribunal shall be final:

Provided that no appeal shall be rejected unless an opportunity has been given to both the parties of being heard in person or through a duly authorised representative.

(6) The Appellate Tribunal shall make an endeavour to pronounce its order in writing within one month of the receipt of an appeal.

(7) A copy of every order made under sub-section (5) shall be sent to both the parties free of cost."

9. On a bare reading of Section 16 it appears to us that the right of appeal has been conferred only on the Senior Citizen or Paren