Response

Mental harassment is an offence and punishable under the laws. Increase in cases of child suicides due to mental harassment by teachers, parents or anybody who has the charge over the kid led to provisions of punishment for this offence, to prevent it from happening before reaching the stage of Abetment to suicide. Abetment to suicide is punishable under Section 309 India Penal Code with simple imprisonment up to 1 year or/and fine.

You will have to first collect evidence – true evidence, not created ones. You should go to a police station and state the facts. Ideally an FIR should be registered. You can then use that to file a case.

As far as the property is concerned, you have equal share if the property is ancestreal otherwise you have no legal share in your father’s self-acquired property.

The share of sons and daughters in ancestral property
The Delhi High Court had ruled in 2016 that an adult son had no legal claim on his parents’ self-acquired property. ÒWhere the house is a self-acquired house of the parents, a son, whether married or unmarried, has no legal right to live in that house and he can live in that house only at the mercy of his parents up to the time the parents allowÓ said the order.Once an ancestral property is partitioned between the family members, it would cease to be ancestral property. A father has a choice to not will-out his self-acquired property to his son. However, this is not valid in case of ancestral properties.

Reference: 1. Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. Ð Section 75 of the act provides that whoever, having the actual charge of, or control over, a child, assaults, abandons, abuses, exposes or willfully neglects the child or causes or procures the child to be assaulted, abandoned, abused, exposed or neglected in a manner likely to cause such child unnecessary mental or physical suffering, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term up to three years or/and with fine of one lakh rupees. This provision covers mental harassment by parents within its ambit. However, if it is found that biological parents abandoned child due to circumstances beyond their control, it shall be presumed that such abandonment is not willful and the penal provisions of this section shall not apply in such cases.

2. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. Ð This Act also provides protection to women including girl child against the mental harassment from parents. One can seek monetary relief, compensation, damages, residence or protection under Section 12 in this act. Under Section 31 of this act, a person against whom protection order has been passed by the court, breaches it, is punishable with imprisonment up to one year, or/and fine which may extend to twenty thousand rupees. This offence is non-bailable and cognizable under Section 32. In an instance, Judicial Magistrate First Class in Pune even ordered the father to pay maintenance under this act to an 11-year-old boy for education by treating it as neutral gender for minor children.

So, these laws protect a child from mental harassment by parents. A child can file a complaint with local police by himself or through next friend. Also, there are some national helpline numbers on which abuse can be reported.

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