Persons other than senior citizens, parents have right to appeal: HC
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The High Court of Karnataka has declared that the right to appeal against an order passed by the Assistant Commissioner under the provisions of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2002, is not confined only to parents or senior citizens but even to their opposite parties.
While interpreting the provisions of the Act, the court said that though the plain reading of Section 16 the Act indicates that the right to appeal before the appellate tribunal is provided only to parents and senior citizens against the order passed by the Assistant Commissioner, the combined reading of it along with Section 15 does not indicate that the right to appeal is confined only to them.
Justice H.T. Narendra Prasad passed the order while disposing of a petition filed by M. Sunitha of Ballari questioning an order passed by the tribunal in favour of her mother-in-law.
Under the Act
It was contended in the petition that no right to appeal provided before the appellate authority (Deputy Commissioner) to persons other than parents and senior citizens against the order passed by the Assistant Commissioner (who acts as a tribunal under the Act), and hence, the petitioner had knocked on the doors of the High Court to challenge the order of the tribunal.
The court said that the Act has no provision that excludes right to appeal to persons other than parents and senior citizens and hence, non mentioning of right to appeal to others “is a case of accidental omission and not conscious exclusion” by Parliament.
Peculiar situation
If the right to appeal is confined only to parents and senior citizens then it would lead to a peculiar situation in which the parents and senior citizens require to approach appellate tribunal against the tribunal’s order, and their opposite parties requiring to approach the High Court directly.
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