The Madras High Court on Thursday held that revenue authorities cannot take steps to cancel gift deeds, by invoking their power under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act of 2007, if the father had executed the deed but the mother had filed an application for cancellation or vice-versa.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh ruled that as per the scheme of the 2007 Act, only the transferror of a property by way of gift, settlement or such other mode of transfer could maintain an application for cancellation too if the children fail to maintain him/her as per a specific condition that had been mentioned in the deed itself.
“No other person can maintain an application under Section 23(1) of the Act. As a consequence, the application submitted by the mother of the present petitioner is not maintainable and the second respondent (Kallakurichi Revenue Divisional Officer) ought not to have entertained the application and passed orders,” he wrote.
The verdict was delivered while allowing a writ petition filed by Karuppan of Kallkurichi against the RDO’s February 15, 2019 order for cancelling the gift deed executed in his favour by his father in 1997. After the father’s death, the petitioner’s mother had sought cancellation of the deed since he failed to take care of her.
