The daughter-in-law wanted to grab the bungalow by implicating her in-laws on charges of domestic violence. The house that the mother-in-law made with her hard earned money. He wanted to remove them from his house. The court gave an important verdict in this case. Now the daughter-in-law will have to repay the 7-year fare to the mother-in-law with vacating the house. In a very important case in Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court has allowed an elderly couple to evict son and daughter -in -law from their own property.
What is the whole matter
The case started in 2016 when a woman filed several cases related to her husband and in -laws related to 498A i.e. dowry harassment, domestic violence and marital disputes. The woman claimed that she was tortured mentally and physically. On the other hand, his mother-in-law filed a petition in the Senior Citizen Tribunal, saying that he is now facing mental stress and harassment in his own house and wants to remove his son and daughter-in-law.
How did the legal battle start?
In 2008, the husband’s parents bought a bungalow from their hard earned money. In 2016, the son and daughter -in -law were allowed to stay at home as they were married recently and had no other place to live. But shortly after, the daughter -in -law filed criminal and marital cases against her. After this, in 2019, the mother-in-law filed a petition in the tribunal under the Senior Citizen Act 2007 and the tribunal ordered the son and daughter-in-law to vacate the house in 30 days.
But in 2020, the daughter -in -law challenged the order and the Eplet Tribunal canceled the order of the tribunal. The elderly couple turned to the Bombay High Court on this.
What did Bombay High Court say?
On 18 June 2025, the Bombay High Court said that the son and daughter-in-law had allowed the parents to live, it does not mean that the daughter-in-law got any legal right over this property. The court said that when the relations have been broken and the daughter-in-law had committed criminal cases against her in-laws, she has no right to forcibly live in her mother-in-law’s house.
Daughter -in -law’s arguments dismissed
The daughter -in -law’s lawyers said that since domestic violence and matrimonial cases are still pending, the daughter -in -law has the right to live in the in -laws’ house. But the court asked that when there is already a house of three rooms in the name of the daughter -in -law, why does she want to live in her in -laws’ house? In response, the daughter -in -law could not give any concrete document or legal order, which proves that she has any valid right to live in her in -laws’ house.
Husband was also evicted
The court also made it clear that both son and daughter-in-law should get out of the house, because this property belonged to their parents and they bought it. The court has ordered both of them to vacate the house within 30 days and repay the outstanding fare from February 2019 as per the month of Rs 20,000.
A tough stance of the court
The court also said that the daughter -in -law disregarded the first order of the court and till now unnecessarily retained the property, causing the elderly couple to run the court. This case was not just a family fight, but the voice of millions of senior citizens who are victims of harassment from children or their spouses.
The parents who buy the property on their own, no one, even if their son and daughter -in -law cannot live in it without their will. In such cases, daughter -in -law cannot misuse the domestic violence law.