NEW DELHI: The Centre is mulling lifting the ban on lawyers in trial proceedings under the law to secure maintenance for neglected parents, but without compromising the core idea which barred them in the first place.
Sources said a proposal is on the table to allow lawyers to take up cases of senior citizens before tribunals under the “Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act”, while keeping the bar intact on use of legal professionals by children against whom the cases are filed.
The nudge for the change has come from the “learning experience”, where the seniors face difficulty in articulating their case before tribunals, handicapping them against their progeny in arguments to prove neglect and maltreatment. It is felt that engaging lawyers will help the elderly in fighting their claims and securing maintenance.
Section 17 of the Act states, “Notwithstanding anything contained in any law, no party to a proceeding before a tribunal or appellate tribunal shall be represented by a legal practitioner.”
The social justice and empowerment ministry’s proposal, if it comes to fruition, would mark a major departure from the provisions of the Act where lawyers were kept out after much brainstorming within the govt, and with stakeholders, when the law was framed in 2007. The philosophy behind such a stand was that the Act was being put in place to enable the elderly to fight neglect and ill treatment by their children, in what was the first of its kind of dedicated legislation to address the problems faced in families across generations.
But it was felt that such a provision would deliver results only if the trials were speedy and without legal manoeuvrings that are part of courtroom processes. The law lays down that an application for maintenance has to be disposed of within 90 days. The ban on lawyers was specifically to help the older generation, while the stress of the process has been on reconciliation rather than penal provisions which are also provided for in the law.
So, while lawyers may in the future be allowed to participate in the proceedings, it would still be to help the seniors.
Over 17 years, the Centre stuck to the “no-lawyer” stance despite nudges from various sections, including the high courts of Punjab and Haryana, and Madras. A panel constituted by the ministry in 2016 rejected the suggestion to lift the bar on legal practitioners by arguing that the provision helped in dispensing speedy and cost-effective justice to senior citizens.
At a “national consultation” on the issue in Aug 2016, the Bar Council of India dubbed as “outdated” the perception that participation of lawyers hits speedy justice, but its plea for allowing lawyers in tribunals was met with strong resistance from states, NGOs and also the Law Commission.
