Chandigarh, Sept. 19 -- The Punjab and Haryana High Court has upheld the decision of a maintenance tribunal in Jalandhar that ordered the annulment of a property transfer to a son failing to maintain his parents. The annulment was allowed even as transfer deed did not contain the condition that the son would maintain them post transfer of the property, a condition under Section 23(1) of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007. In October 2022, a divisional magistrate in Jalandhar passed the initial annulment order based on the father's complaint, which the deputy commissioner subsequently upheld. It was against this order the son had approached high court in 2023. The property - a factory shed - was transferred to the son in July 2017. The father complained that he had acquired the property. The son requested him to transfer the property in his favour on the assurance that he would take care of his father and mother. Acting upon the assurance of the petitioner son and out of love, the father executed the transfer deed. However, after obtaining the property, the son failed to look after him, the man said in his complaint invoking Section 23 of the law that allows parents to get the property back if the son/daughter fail to take care of parents. The son argued in high court that essential statutory requirement under Section 23(1) of the Act of 2007 was absent in this case. The transfer did not contain a condition that the transferee would provide basic amenities and basic physical needs to the transferor. The court noted that Section 23(1) provides a specific remedy in respect of a transfer of property by a senior citizen where the transfer is subject to the condition that the transferee shall provide basic amenities and basic physical needs to the transferor and the transferee thereafter refuses or fails to provide the same. Thus, the existence of such a condition and its subsequent breach constitutes the statutory foundation for exercise of power under Section 23(1). "While the existence of a condition accompanying the transfer deed remains a necessary requirement for invoking Section 23(1), the same has to be examined in the context of the transaction as a whole and not by adopting an unduly technical approach confined merely to the use of particular words in the transfer document. The existence of such condition, however, must be established from the transfer document, the pleadings of the parties, the circumstances surrounding the transaction and the material brought before the competent authority," the court observed....