The Delhi High Court on Tuesday ruled that aged parents who are self-sufficient and live in houses built from their own earnings have no “legal liability” to put up with sons who turn out to be a “nuisance” for them. Parents, the court said, can very well show the door to “disobedient” sons who are above the age of majority. And that the son lives at the “mercy” of the parents’ love and affection in such a household.

“There is no legal liability on parents to continue to support a disobedient son or a son who becomes a source of nuisance...or who troubles them,” Justice S N Dhingra said while dismissing the petition of a woman, Neetu, who wanted to live in the house of her in-laws in Ashok Vihar in Delhi. Her husband Vikas Mittal had taken a flat in Rohini in May 2005 after “separation” from his parents. But Neetu refused to live there saying it was “not habitable due to deficiency of fan, cooler”. She said she had a “right to live” in her in-laws’ house.

Justice Dhingra said: “She can assert her rights, if any, against the property of her husband but she cannot thrust herself against the parents of her husband, nor can she claim a right to live in their house.”