INTRODUCTION
A gift deed is a legal document that transfers ownership of a property be it movable or immovable from one person to another person without any consideration. The person who gives the gift is called the Donor and the person who receives the gift is called the Donee. And it is important to note that a gift deed takes effect immediately after its registered unlike a will. And a gift deed may include any conditions that restrict access or use of the respective gift. And a donor must be an adult and of a sound mind who is competent to a contract and must willing transfer the property as a gift without any force, forgery, fraud. And it is also vital that a donee must accept gift during the donor’s lifetime unless the gift deed specifies any time. And registration is mandatory for a gift deed when it comes to immovable property.
The Apex Court recently repealed a gift deed after an appeal was filed by the donor of that gifted property, the donor was an elderly mother who gifted her property in the name of her son who was the donee in this case. Supreme Court cancelled that gift deed after the mother who is also the appellant and the donor raised that the donee that is the son to whom the property was gifted due to non-compliance of MWPSC ACT, 2007 (Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007) which is a legislation initiated by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Union Government. The gift deed was executed and a clause was mentioned that the donee must maintain and take care of the Donor till the lifetime. But later the donee failed to perform the duties and respect the condition of the gift deed due to which the donor that is the mother filed an appeal asking to revoke the said gift deed.
BACKGROUND
Appellant mother purchased the said gifted property on 23th January 1968, and on 7th September 2019 she executed a gift deed in favour of her son who is the responded in this case and the gift deed has this condition that the son would maintain and provide basic care to the mother. And the gift deed was registered on 9th September 2019. And not only that on the same date a Promissory Note that is (Vachan Patra) was also executed by the son in which he stated that he will take care of his mother who gifted the said property till her lifetime. And a clause was clearly added in the gift deed that gift deed can be cancelled if son fails to perform the duty to take care.
Then the Appellant mother filed an application under Section 22 and 23 of the MWPSC Act, 2007 seeking to nullify the gift deed which was executed by the appellant mother. The Sub-Division Magistrate permitted the application and declare the gift deed null and void and same decision was upheld after an appeal as well in the Tribunal and the court also stated that the responded failed to obey the duties and observed that Responded had not approached the court with clean hands and he fails to perform its duty.
However, an appeal was filed against the order at the High Court by the Responded and a division bench of the High Court stated that MWPSC Act has nothing to do with this and Tribunal while passing an order did not function accordingly and role of tribunal is only to look at the condition of the gift deed and Tribunal acted something out of their Jurisdiction and High Court set aside the Judgement of the Tribunal.
ISSUE BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT
Whether High Court was right setting aside the order of Tribunal granting the welfare to the elderly parent under the MWPSC Act?
Appellant mother than moved to the Supreme Court by filing an appeal against the order of the High Court, and Supreme Court after studying the facts and issues of the case stated that it is a social obligation of the children to maintain and protect their parents when they are unable to do so. The court said that Section 23 of the MWPSC Act, mentions certain conditions when the transfer of the property be void and also cited Sudesh Chhikara vs Ramti Devi, 2022 and S Vanitha vs Deputy Commissioner, 2021, which provided that the transferee shall provide basic amenities and basic physical needs to the parents and clarified the power of tribunal stating that tribunal has the power and authority to order such eviction if it is necessary and in the interest of natural justice, and for protecting the interest of senior citizens.
CONCLUSION
The Supreme Court’s Hon’ble Justice C.T. Ravikumar and Justice Sanjay Karol quashes the gift deed and pointed out that High Court should not follow strict interpretation while looking into the MWPSC cases concerning the interest of elder parents and court also said that a promissory note and gift deed clearly started that the son should take care of the mother and failing to do so will amount to the cancellation of the gift deed, hence directed the responded son to return back the possession of the said gifted property to the appellant mother before 28th February 2025.
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