Proceedings under the Senior Citizens Act are “not meant to be used to grab property illicitly,” said the Bombay high court. It added that a fraud was a play on it, and recalled and set aside its 2021 order evicting singer Shweta Shetty from her then 95-year-old father’s house at Altamount Road in South Bombay. Shweta had been staying with her dad since 2015 but the father told the court that he was the sole and absolute owner of the flat.
The court at that time had held hat the widower was entitled to seek eviction of the singer for having no rights in the flat.
Last year, Shweta sought a review of the 2021 order, before the high court. She pointed to a gift deed of August 2021, by which her father had gifted the flat to his three other daughters, who lived elsewhere. On seeing the gift deed, the court said, a fraud was played on the court and on the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (MWPSC) Act, 2007.
On April 18, a bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Madhav Jamdar said in its order, “What has been done is a fraud on the court and a fraud on the statute. What was not disclosed to us was that the factual position had changed (and changed drastically) by the time of our judgement (of 2021).” That was because Shweta Shetty’s father had divested himself of all titles, by the gift deed.
The court concluded, “It is manifestly clear that our order of 25th November, 2021 was obtained on a representation to the court that was false and incorrect to the knowledge of the father and possibly the other donee daughters who are also arrayed as parties.” The court refrained from imposing punitive costs only because of family relations and the father being a senior citizen.