For parents, their children are everything, so many times it happens that elderly parents transfer their property to their children so that the children get the ownership of the property during their lifetime.

There are many reasons behind gifting one’s property in favor of children. But sometimes the circumstances become such that the elderly father or mother had some property and they transferred it to their children and after getting the property, the children stopped maintaining the parents.

To protect senior citizens from such circumstances, a provision was made in Section 23 of the Maintenance and Welfare of Senior Citizens Act that if a senior citizen has executed a gift deed with the condition that the person receiving the gift will maintain that senior citizen and after the gift deed, the person receiving the property in the gift violates this condition, then the gift deed made in his favor will be considered to have been done under fraud or pressure and on this basis the tribunal can declare such gift deed void.

The Supreme Court has given a very important decision on the provision on 2 January 2025, the details of which you will get a copy of the decision if you google it. Today we will try to understand this decision of the Supreme Court given in the context of Section 23 of the Maintenance and Welfare of Senior Citizens Act.

Before understanding the decision of the Supreme Court, there is a need to understand the facts of the case in which a woman had a property purchased in 1968, which she transferred in favor of her son after becoming a senior citizen through a gift deed on 9 September 2019.

On the day the gift deed was registered, the son of that woman, that is, the person who got the property through gift, also wrote a promissory note and gave it to his mother in which it was written that he would take care of his mother’s needs and maintain her throughout his life and if he does not do so, then the woman will be entitled to get back the property given in the gift.

There is a provision in the Maintenance and Welfare of Senior Citizens Act that if a senior citizen makes a gift deed with a condition of maintenance and later the person receiving the property as a gift does not maintain the senior citizen, then the gift deed can be declared void.

But the subject of controversy in this case was that no such condition was written in the gift deed executed by the senior citizen woman, rather a separate undertaking was given by the son who received the property as a gift, in which such a condition was written. Now the legal question is whether according to the Act, this condition is necessary in the gift deed itself, which was not there.

Will The Senior Citizen Have The Right To Get The Gift Deed Declared Void On The Basis Of The Undertaking?

When the senior citizen filed a petition before the tribunal seeking relief to cancel the gift deed and get back the possession of the property, the tribunal accepted the petition and declared the gift deed void.

When it was challenged in the first appeal, the order of the tribunal was upheld in the first appeal also, but when the matter went to the division bench of the High Court, the division bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court dismissed the petition with the conclusion that the condition to declare the gift deed void should have been written in the gift deed itself and if it is not done then the gift deed cannot be considered as conditional.

Therefore the gift deed cannot be declared void under the Maintenance and Welfare of Senior Citizens Act. When the appeal of this order came before the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court interpreted the legal provision in favor of the senior citizen, the main ground or reason behind which was that while interpreting any law the most important thing that should be kept in mind is what was the main purpose of the legislature behind making that law.

The Maintenance and Welfare of Senior Citizens Act is mainly made to protect the interests of senior citizens. Any law which is made to benefit or protect a class cannot be interpreted strictly.

The basic principle of law is that the interpretation of beneficial law should be objective so that the interests of law-abiding individuals can be kept in mind. So that their interests can be protected. The main principle is that the court should be practical while implementing the laws made for social welfare.

In the case before the Supreme Court, no condition was added to the gift deed, but the person who received the gift had prepared a promissory note on the same day, in which it was written that he would maintain his mother throughout his life and take care of her needs. This separately prepared promissory note was considered by the Supreme Court as a condition of the gift deed. And in the event of breach of this condition, the gift deed was rejected and the son was also ordered to vacate the property and hand it back to his mother.

Now in every case, even if there is no condition in the gift deed, whether this principle will apply or not, the Supreme Court has not given any clear order on this, so in my view it should not be assumed that if the condition is not written in the gift deed or there is no separate undertaking etc., then the gift deed can be cancelled

But yes, it has become clear that if a senior citizen has gifted his property to a close relative with the expectation that the person receiving the gift will maintain the senior citizen, then in such a situation, no matter what type of document is there, the person receiving the gift deed will have to maintain that senior citizen Otherwise, the senior citizen will get the ground to declare the gift deed void, we hope you have understood the purpose behind the decision of the Supreme Court.