Law & Justice, Society, GS2, Governance & Vulnerable Sections

By IAS Monk / April 4, 2025

📜 What is the Senior Citizens Act, 2007?

• Legal framework for maintenance and protection of elderly
• Mandatory support by adult children/legal heirs
• Tribunals established for fast-track resolution
• Makes abandonment a punishable offence
• Requires old age homes & healthcare access at district level

🏠 Section 23 – Conditional Property Transfers

• If a senior gifts/transfers property with the expectation of care
• But the recipient fails, transfer is voidable
• Grounds: Fraud, coercion, neglect
• Even after property transfer, maintenance rights continue
• Transfer can be annulled by tribunal

⚖️ Supreme Court’s Key Interpretation

• Eviction is permitted under Section 23(2)
• Not automatic, but subject to due process & competing claims
• Power of tribunal = implied within “maintenance & protection”
• Sets precedent for legal dignity in personal spaces

🤝 Relevance for UPSC

• GS2: Welfare of vulnerable groups
• Ethics: Responsibility, filial care, dignity
• Essay: “Rights do not retire — they simply become quieter to hear.”

✨ Closing Whisper

“Homes age. Love strains.
But justice must remain a room where no one is ever too old to be heard.”

🔥 A Thought Spark – by IAS Monk

Inheritance is not a debt.
But care — that is the interest love owes,
Long after assets are signed away.