Judge ‘harassed’ by advocate son gets relief

The Punjab and Haryana high court has come to the rescue of elderly parents being tortured by their own progeny in their own homes. The order was pronounced in a petition filed by 85-year-old former high court Chief Justice Shanti Swarup Dewan, who had been at the receiving end of harassment by his only son, advocate Suvir Dewan. The court observed that the life of Chief Justice Dewan had been reduced to “animal existence”. The court ordered Suvir Dewan not only to vacate his father’s house within 15 days but also pay his father '50,000 as litigation cost. The court also ordered the UT senior superintendent of police to ensure enforcement of its orders. It may be recalled here that the ex-chief justice and his wife Romila had moved court citing their miserable existence because of alleged torture by their own son. The couple had sought directions from the court to shift Suvir Dewan and his family from their house to Suvir Dewan’s house in Panchkula’s Sector 2. A division bench comprising Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice Augustine George Masih granted the Chandigarh administration one month’s time to prepare a suitable mechanism for protecting the life and property of the elderly under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007. The court observed that it was quite clear that not only did Suvir Dewan want to deprive his father of dealing with the property in accordance with his wishes, but also wanted to grab the whole property and deny his two sisters their share.