Caring for parent an emotional act, no child can be forced to stop caring for parents: Calcutta High Court

Taking care of one's parents is an emotional and loving act and no child can be forced to stop doing so, observed the Calcutta High Court on Thursday [Sampa Deb (Basu) vs State of West Bengal]..The Court made the remark while quashing a criminal case lodged against a woman who was staying at her parents' house to look after her blind mother, and against whom the case appeared to have been lodged due to disagreements over where she should stay. ."Taking care of one’s parents is an emotional and loving act. No force in the world can stop a child from doing it and no child can be forced to do so, if he or she does not want to," the Court underscored..Justice Shampa Dutt (Paul) noted that the woman's husband had alleged that his wife had beaten him and even issued threats. He claimed that his wife had driven him out of her parents' house, where the couple had been residing with her mother..The judge further noted that the husband's parents had died and that his wife's mother, being blind, needed someone to look after her. The Court concluded that the dispute between the couple was rooted in disagreements over their place of stay.."Now when the mother of the wife is 100% blind in both eyes, having none to look after and protect her, the husband is being unreasonable. A situation like this undoubtedly requires that a child, the daughter herein, will be her mother’s mental, physical and emotional support, more so when the husband having no other family members has been residing with them since 2009," the bench observed..The Court also observed that the wife was the only 'earning' member in the family and that her workplace was near to her mother's house..These aspects also supported the wife's case that she needed to live with her mother.The Court proceeded to quash the case filed against the woman by her husband after noting that there was no material to support the husband's allegations against her."In the case diary there is absolutely no material on record to prima facie substantiate the offences alleged against the petitioner and thus permitting the proceedings to continue will clearly be an abuse of the process of law," the Court held..With these observations, the Court allowed the petition filed by the woman to quash the criminal case filed against her by her husband. .Advocate Pradip Kr Mandal appeared for the woman (petitioner).Public Prosecutor Saswata Gopal Mukherjee and advocate Rita Datta represented the State..[Read Judgment]