Law and Senior Citizens

After the age of 60 every person has been categorized into a special category that is “Senior Citizen”. If the person has been called senior, that means they should have a separate set of laws for their benefits. In many cases, older adults do not know about these things. In this article, we will provide information related to the laws that benefit the elderly. Due to the enormous amount of negligence faced by older adults, the government launched the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizen Act, 2007. These are some of the provisions made under this act:

  1. SECURITY:
  • This law provides protection and security to senior citizens. It makes sure the older adult does not face any problem caused by either a person or a situation.
  • If the older adults face any trouble caused by a person, they can directly go and file a complaint to the DM (?District magistrate) office or the nearest police station.
  • There is a helpline number 1291, which the senior citizen can call and register their complaint.
  • According to the law, the senior citizen has to file the complaint within 24 hours of the incident, and the DM has to resolve the case within 30 days of the filing of the complaint.
  1. CARE:
  • If a senior citizen is living with his/her family or living alone and is not able to subsistence himself/herself, then according to the law he/she can ask their children or the person who is a close relative to give them 10,000 Rs/- per month for their living.
  • If the legal heir of the person refuses to provide the subsistence to the older adult, then he/she has to pay a fine of rupees 5000 or have to go to jail for three months or both.
  1. Property:
  • If the senior citizen owns the property, no one can force them to leave the property, if done so they can file a case against them in the DM office. They can make anyone the legal heir of their will, depending on the amount of care they receive, and in case of any fraud caused by the person after making the will in his/her name, the senior citizen may file a complaint against them.
  1. Free Lawyer:
  • If the annual income of the senior citizen is less than two lakhs per annum, then he/she will be provided with a free of cost lawyer for any court help.
  • The judge has to see the case of the senior citizens first followed by the other cases. Other important information is available at https://districts.ecourts.gov.in/ .