Protection ordered for Pondy-based senior ‘overseas’ citizen

CHENNAI: In a rare case, a Puducherry-based senior citizen who holds an Overseas Citizen of India is delighted with the judgment of the Madras High Court directing the Puducherry UT to consider his representation for his protection under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007.

Thanks to the Treaty of Cession 1956 and the Agreed Process-Verbal framework signed by the high-level delegation of Indian and French officials in 1963 pertaining to the protection of the French domicile in the UT during the merger with the Union of India.

Justice Anita Sumanth passed the order on allowing a writ petition filed by Namassivayane, an Indian-born French citizen who has the OCI card and lifetime visa to stay in India. The case of the petitioner is that his daughter and son had illegally taken over his property and executed a sale deed in favor of some other third parties.

As the petitioner was forced to vacate the property, he approached the Special Officer, Department of Revenue and Disaster Management, Puducherry U|T with a representation to protect his rights under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act|. To his shock, the authorities rejected his application on the ground that the petitioner is not an Indian citizen and the Welfare Act will not apply to a foreigner. Therefore the petitioner approached the Madras HC to quash the order of the authority. The petitioner’s counsel V Kamala Kumar submitted that Section 7B of the Indian Citizenship Act grants to an OCI card holder all rights stipulated by notification by the Central Government in the Gazette, barring those rights specified under Sub-Section (2).

The judge rejected the respondents’ submissions stating that in Section 2 (d), and (h) of the Welfare Act read that a senior citizen above 60 is eligible to get a remedy. She also cited the 1966 verdict of Madras HC in D Gobalousamy Vs Puducherry UT case that the spirit in which the Agreed Process-Verbal is to be understood and applied.

Justice Anita Sumanth also noted that upon a combined reading and understanding of the provisions of the Welfare Act with the relevant provisions of Agreed Process-Verbal, both in letter and spirit, I am of the considered and categorical view that the petitioner must succeed.

“The application of the petitioner is held maintainable. It is now for the authority to issue notice to the parties in terms of the relevant provisions of the Act read with the Puducherry Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Rules, 2011,” the court ordered.