In a significant pronouncement, the Delhi High Court has clarified that when senior citizens bestow property upon their family through a gift deed, this generous act is fundamentally premised on an unspoken covenant of ‘love and affection’. Crucially, if the recipients of such a gift fail to uphold their end by providing the necessary care and essential amenities, the court has affirmed the senior citizen’s right to revoke the deed.
This pivotal judgment was delivered by a bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela. Their decision came after reviewing a petition filed by an 88-year-old woman who, back in 2015, had transferred her property to her daughter-in-law through a gift deed.
The elderly woman recounted that, following the property transfer, her daughter-in-law’s demeanor underwent a dramatic and distressing shift. She alleged being deprived of basic necessities like clothes, medicines, and dentures, and even faced threats of being confined. Consequently, she approached the Maintenance Tribunal, established under the Senior Citizens Act, asserting that she had suffered severe neglect and intimidation subsequent to gifting her property.
Initially, in 2019, the Tribunal chose not to annul the gift deed but instead instructed local police to guarantee her safety. Undeterred, the woman appealed this decision to a local court, which, in July 2023, ultimately ordered the cancellation of the property deed.
The daughter-in-law subsequently challenged this verdict in the High Court, contending that the gift deed could only be deemed invalid if it explicitly stated a condition for her to provide basic amenities and physical needs to her mother-in-law.
However, in its judgment delivered on September 26, the High Court dismissed the daughter-in-law’s appeal, reaffirming the single judge bench’s earlier order. The Court emphasized that such property transfers are inherently rooted in the expectation and hope that elders will receive diligent care and support during their golden years.
The court’s ruling highlighted that ‘love and affection’ is not merely an emotional sentiment but an implied, fundamental condition within the framework of the Senior Citizens Act. Therefore, it concluded that this expectation of care does not need to be explicitly written into the gift deed for it to be legally binding and enforceable concerning the senior citizen’s maintenance.
The court eloquently stated that ‘when parents choose to transfer property to their son or daughter, they do so out of profound love and affection, coupled with the earnest hope that they will be cared for in their old age. Thus, ‘love and affection’ stands as an implied prerequisite for the execution of such a gift deed, and any subsequent failure to provide maintenance to the senior citizen would squarely fall under the purview of Section 23(1) of the Senior Citizens Act.’