Senior Citizens Act — Delhi Rules, Eviction · 30 September 2026
Punam v. Divisional Commissioner, GNCTD: Delhi High Court Upholds Senior Citizen's Eviction Remedy Against a Daughter-in-Law, Independent of a Maintenance Claim
High Court of Delhi · 2026 LiveLaw (Del) 941; W.P.(C) 11683/2022
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A mother-in-law applied for eviction of her daughter-in-law from her property under Rule 22(3)(1) of the Delhi Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Rules, 2009, on account of non-maintenance and ill-treatment. The Divisional Commissioner directed the daughter-in-law to vacate and hand over peaceful possession. She challenged that order before the High Court and also challenged the validity of Rule 22(3)(1)(i) and (iv) as beyond the parent Act, arguing among other things that the rule speaks of a son, daughter or legal heir and so cannot apply to a daughter-in-law, and that a senior citizen cannot get eviction without also claiming maintenance.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia dismissed the petition. It held that the eviction rule is not ultra vires, because it is traceable both to the State's rule-making power and to Section 22 of the Senior Citizens Act, which requires a comprehensive plan to protect the life and property of senior citizens. It held that eviction proceedings under Rule 22(3)(1) before the District Magistrate, with appeal to the Divisional Commissioner, are independent of maintenance proceedings under Sections 4 and 5 before the Tribunal, so a senior citizen need not claim maintenance to invoke them, rejected the argument that the rule cannot reach a daughter-in-law, and found no reason to interfere with the eviction order.
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