Karnataka Medical Education and Skill Development Minister Sharan Prakash Patil has called for the cancellation of wills and property transfers in cases where elderly parents have been abandoned by their children after transferring property to them.
According to officials, a disturbing trend has emerged in which senior citizens are left behind in government medical college hospitals by their children, often after relinquishing their property rights. At Belagavi Institute of Medical Sciences (BIMS) alone, over 150 cases of deserted elderly parents have been reported, with more than 100 similar cases across other medical institutions in the state.
During a recent review meeting, the director of BIMS raised this issue with Minister Patil, who expressed deep concern. He immediately directed the Director of Medical Education (DME), Dr. B.L. Sujatha Rathod, to alert all institute heads and lodge complaints with assistant commissioners (revenue sub-division) to take action against those responsible.
The minister emphasized that many abandoned parents have confirmed that their children left them in hospitals, knowing they would receive food, shelter, and medical care. While some cite economic hardships, most cases involve deliberate abandonment after the property transfer.
Patil urged medical institute directors to ensure that legal action is taken under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007. This law mandates that children or relatives must provide financial and medical support to elderly parents. If they fail to do so, parents have the legal right to revoke property transfers.
As per Section 23 of the Act, if children neglect or abandon their parents after inheriting property, the law allows for the cancellation of wills or property transfers, restoring ownership to the elderly.
The minister’s directive aims to protect vulnerable senior citizens and curb the exploitation of elderly parents by their own children.
Hi
Son has abandoned mother, she’s is struggling. He has taken the property from his father emotionally black mailing. Now father ( husband of a lady) is no more. A big criminal mind fellow. Please help her.
Is there a similar scheme for brother’s of senior citizens being cheated their share of properties by their brothers ?
Senior Citizens don’t seem to have been made sufficiently aware of their rights & privileges and/or how to go about seeking them as permissible under the law. At least in Belagavi i was unable to find a ‘Senior Citizen Friendly Single Window’ for assistance at least to the extent provided under the Welfare of Parents & Senior Citizens Act. Even information regarding the implementation/assisting authorities in the matter is hard to find or get. Senior Citizens are asked to run from pillar to post which they may not be able to do for reasons of physical/mental health or want of resources. At Police Stations which often are the first port of call, Senior Citizens are made to wait and asked multiple questions by a variety of functionaries sometimes over several days before they even get to meet the Inspector Sahib who is busy in meetings, functions & bandobust. The Inspector Sahib is mostly off-putting & difficult to find a second time Or follow-up. The Police helpline will mostly direct you to 112 the response team of which has limited resources & will invariably ask you to come to the Police Station at odd hours to meet the Inspector Sahib who more often than not is not available!! So goes on the endless circle….Some will tell you approach AC/DC but it’s an enervating if not humiliating experience even to try to meet these functionaries “midst their busy schedules”…Approach Human Rights and they give the same Police more than a month to reply. One can go on… A Hospital Or Crematorium may be better place for the distressed & aggrieved Senior Citizens.
The last rather lengthy & verbose message was by me. If someone in authority wants me to back it up with facts and records, I’m only too willing as long as they don’t ask me to meet the same Inspector Sahib! And forgot to mention, one lw level functionary gave a lengthy moral lecture on how parents should treat children as I waited for the Sahib who (of course) didn’t turn up at the Station that late evening (He was attending a function)
The last rather lengthy & verbose message was by me. If someone in authority wants me to back it up with facts and records, I’m only too willing as long as they don’t ask me to meet the same Inspector Sahib! And forgot to mention, one low level functionary gave a lengthy moral lecture on how parents should treat children as I waited for the Sahib who (of course) didn’t turn up at the Station that late evening (He was attending a function)