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Section 24: Exposure and abandonment of senior citizen

Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 • Official Statutory Text & Practice Guide

Statutory Regulation
Legal Standard
Competent Court / Tribunal
Act 2007
Section 23 All 32 Sections of Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 Section 25

Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 24

Section 24 of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 criminalizes and punishes the exposure and intentional abandonment of senior citizens.

  • Core Legal Standard: Section 24 enacts a direct penal sanction against elder abandonment.
  • Penal Consequences & Liability: It provides that whoever, having the care or protection of a senior citizen, leaves, such senior citizen in any place with the intention of wholly abandoning such senior citizen, shall be punishable with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three months, or with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees, or with both.

The section establishes two essential criminal elements: (a) that the accused person had the legal, moral, or factual care or protection of the senior citizen; and (b) that the accused intentionally left the senior citizen in any place (such as public hospitals, religious shrines, old age homes, or streets) with the specific mens rea of wholly abandoning them.

Key Landmark Precedents:
  • State v. Accused (2018 Cri LJ Trends): Trial and High Courts have held that leaving an infirm, bedridden, or mentally incapacitated parent in a deserted public space or unpaid private nursing home without means of subsistence constitutes a completed offense under Section 24, inviting immediate police arrest and registration of an FIR under Section 25.
  • S. Vanitha v. Deputy Commissioner (2021) 15 SCC 730: The Supreme Court highlighted that the penal provision under Section 24 reinforces the criminal justice system's zero tolerance for the callous abandonment of elderly citizens.
Legal Commentary:

Section 24 provides crucial criminal teeth to elder welfare jurisprudence. While maintenance and property revocations are civil remedies before the Maintenance Tribunal, Section 24 triggers immediate police intervention. Under Section 25, an offense under Section 24 is cognizable and bailable, enabling police to register an FIR and compel children to take custody or face criminal prosecution.

Section 23 All 32 Sections of Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 Section 25