Maintenance of Parents & Grandparents “ The Lord hath commanded that ye show kindness into your parents, whether one of them, or both of them, attain too old age with thee. Wherefore say not unto them. Fie on you neither reproach them, but speak respect unto them, and submit to behave humbly towards them, out of tender affection, and say “ O Lord: have mercy on them both, as they nursed me and give unto him that is of kin to you his due”. (Quran,chap: XVII) Right from the moment a child is conceived, the well-being of the child becomes the parents primary concern. Over the years, the parents shower the child with love and affection and eagerly spend money, effort, time and energy after them. Simultaneously the parents also grow old and then comes the time when the tables turn and it is time for the child to look after their ageing parents. These expectations are deep-rooted in various societies, being influenced and sometimes institutionalised by religion and community sanctions. However, social changes have resulted in a gap between expectations and practice. Children both in the third world as well as developed countries are increasingly found to be not taking care of, or not willing to take responsibility to maintain their parents, making the poor parents helpless in their old age. A question arises here -- can the children legally deny maintaining their elderly parents? The rules regarding maintenance of parents by the son as found in Hedaya are as follows: 1. Children in easy circumstances are bound to maintain their poor parents, although they may be able to earn something for themselves. 2. A son though in strained circumstances is bound to maintain his mother if the mother is poor, though she may not be infirm. 3. A son, who, though poor is earning something, is bound to support his poor father who earns something. 4. To Baillie, a person is bound to maintain his paternal and maternal grandfathers and grandmothers if they are poor, but not otherwise, to the same extent as he is bound to maintain his poor father & mother. There are various excuses for not taking care of the parents provided by children. It is often argued that the increase in cost of living and change in social attitude owing to economic changes have made life busier and instigated the ever-growing greed to earn more money. While devoting more time to work towards those goals, maintaining parents may seem like a burden and thus the traditional norm is obviously changing. The direction of the change is perhaps towards the breaking of ties between generations within the family. The social initiative to tackle the problem of elderly persons has started long ago across the world with the introduction, execution and acceptance of old homes. In Bangladesh, too, private initiatives and assistance from NGOs have been of paramount significance to provide shelter to the elderly homeless. The Probin Hitoishi Shangha Hospital and Home for the Aged and Boyeshko Punorbashon Kendra, situated in Gazipur, are two good examples. The attempts to tackle this problem legally, however, are at different levels in different countries. In regard to Bangladesh, there was no specific legal framework regarding maintenance of elderly parents until 2013, the year when the Maintenance to Parents Act 2013 was passed. However, our neighbouring country India seems much ahead of Bangladesh in tackling this problem. Since the early 1970s the Indian courts have been using a legal provision enshrined in Section 125 (1) (d) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, whereby a Magistrate can order children to make a payment of monthly allowance as maintenance to their Parents (father or mother). In different cases, the Supreme Court and various High Courts of India have pronounced some major decisions. In Pandurang Bhaurao Dabhade vs. Baburao Baburao Dabhade and another (1980 CriLJ 256 = 1980 (82) BOMLR 116), the court decided that father or mother must be unable to maintain himself or herself in order for the legal provision to apply. Moreover, fulfillment of parental obligation is not a pre-condition to claim maintenance. Further, in Dr. Mrs. Vijaya Manohar Arbat vs. Kashirao Rajaram Sawai & another (AIR 1987 SC 1100), the court emphasised that the daughter is liable to pay maintenance to parents. In Baban Alias Madhav Dagadu Dange vs. Parvatibai Dagadu Dange (1978 CriLJ 1436 = 1978 (80) BOMLR 305) court declared that adoptive mother can claim maintenance as well. Step-mother can claim maintenance as evident from Kirtikant D. Vadodaria vs. State of Gujarat and another (1996(4) SCC 479). The application for maintenance was to be filed where the son /daughter lives (Vijay Kumar Prasad vs. State of Bihar & Others (2004 AIR 2123). While there may be long discussions on what social, cultural and economic measures can be taken to prevent the adverse situations faced by the poor elderly parents in cases where their children deny maintaining them, the 2013 law has made one thing obvious that -- maintenance of parents at their old age is a legal responsibility of their children, and if the children deny this responsibility, there is law in Bangladesh to make them accountable.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 10:20:48 +0000