As her first son harassed and blackmailed her before throwing her out of her own house, a 76-year-old single mother was forced to take the legal route to get him evicted. For over 14 years, Harvinder Kaur Bawa had to fight her own son to get justice, all alone.
A former school teacher, Harvinder, raised two sons on her own after her husband passed away in 1977.
She left her job as a teacher in Carmel Convent School, Chandigarh, to open her own school called ‘Little Angles Schools’ in 1984, which she ran till 2006. The school that started in a house had to be shifted to Zirakpur later after running into trouble with HUDA.
In the meantime, her elder son Jasminder Singh Bawa got married and moved to Dubai in 1991.
He returned eight years later and started living with his mother in her 14 marla double-storeyed house in Sector 6. According to her advocate Raghav Gupta, Jasminder refused to do any work and was feeding his family off his mother’s money.
In 2003, Harvinder issued a letter to her son to move his family out of her house as she was no longer able to support them financially. Jasminder refused and in turn started blackmailing her and also filed a criminal case against her, which was later found to be false.
When contacted Harvinder said, “This is a very sad story; I hope no one does this to their parents.”
In 2014, Harvinder reached the senior citizen tribunal of Panchkula but before her case could be decided, the term of the tribunal ended in December 2015.
Upset and emotionally drained, Harvinder was forced to leave her own house and started living in a rented accommodation in Amravati Enclave. The tribunal lay defunct for a year and her case was once again taken up after the tribunal came into existence in December last year.
The senior citizen tribunal observed that the house was owned by Harvinder and her son Jasminder along with his family were in unauthorised occupation of it and were liable to be evicted. “... Harvinder Kaur Bawa, a senior citizen, is required to be protected as mandated by Section 22(2) of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents And Senior Citizens Act, 2007 and rule 24 of the Haryana Maintenance of Parents And Senior Citizens Rule 2009...”
On March 3, the case was decided in her favour and City Magistrate Mamta Sharma ordered the son to vacate the house within a month. After Jasminder failed to comply with the order, the Magistrate asked the Sub-Judicial Magistrate, Jagdeep Dhandha, to evict Jasminder. Today, the SDM formed a team comprising Tehsilder, RS Punia and police personnel from the Sector 5 police station and got the house vacated.
