“Only a guest in the house”

In a dispute over a flat in Dadar Parsi Colony between 73-year-old Soli Batiwala and his 35-year-old daughter Kashmira Robert Lobo who he wants kept out of his house, the Bombay High Court (BHC) ruled that after becoming adults children need their parents’ permission to stay on in their personal property, reported The Times of India (TOI) on February 8, 2012. "They can live in the house of their parents only with the consent of their parents and not otherwise... It is the responsibility of the parents to take care of their minor children, but after children have attained majority, they do not get legal rights,” said Justice J. H. Bhatia.

Rejecting Lobo’s plea that she be recognized as a tenant in the flat that originally stood in the name of her grandmother, the BHC ruled: "When a daughter gets married and leaves the house of her father to reside with her husband, she ceases to be a member of the father’s family and becomes a member of the family of the husband where she has got certain rights under the law. After marriage when she goes to the house of her parents, legally she is only a guest in the house and does not have a right to continue there... She cannot force herself on her parents in the house.”

The flat at issue is located in Hormuzd Building on J. Vimadalal Road and belongs to the Parsee Central Association Co-operative Housing Society Limited. On the demise of Batiwala’s mother in 1980 the tenancy was transferred to his name as he was residing with her along with his family. Lobo married in 1998 and went to live with her husband. In 2011 her father moved the City Civil Court seeking an injunction against Lobo, urging the court to restrain her and his son-in-law from entering or staying in the flat. Lobo claimed she was a deemed tenant in her grandmother’s property and asked for the matter to be referred to the Small Causes Court, but the City Civil Court dismissed her plea, after which the matter came up before the BHC, TOI reported.

The BHC too turned down Lobo’s plea, with the judge saying that when her grandmother died she was aged just four and could not be a deemed tenant. "After the death of her parents she may have certain rights in their property but during the lifetime of the parents, she cannot claim any right in the property of her parents,” Justice Bhatia ruled.