Two years ago, our grandmother executed a registered gift deed out of love and affection, for terrace rights of her property, to her 2 grandsons ( me and my brother ) in order to construct living space for their families. Ground floor rights are completely held by my grandmother. My grandfather was a govt. employee and has a good pension from central govt. My grandparents, mother and we brothers have been living as a happy united family since 30 yrs on the ground floor of our house. My father had expired 19 yrs ago and other than him, my grandparents have one daughter who is married.
Post the gift-deed, probably under the influence of my Bua and her husband, Our grandparents adopted and attitude to cut out themselves from all our help/facilities and have never accepted any kind of monetary help that we want to offer ( although all utility bills, furnishing facilities etc are borne by us ) and finally they have used this situation to file a complaint under Sec 23 of 2007 act for senior citizen maintenance, accusing me and my brother that we are disobedient / bad behaviour / not fulfilling our moral duty towards them and hence they want to void the gift deed.
In our initial hearing at the tribunal, we were advised to discuss with our grandparents and resolve the matter but when we try to discuss the matter with them and show our willingness to offer facilities/maintenance etc, they are totally adamant to cancel the gift deed. The advocate at the tribunal is not ready to hear out our facts and has assinged another date by which if we donot resolve the issue with our grandparents, they can void the gift-deed. Now I have the following questions:
1) Can a lawyer represent us in the Tribunal ?
2) Can the tribunal pass the order to Void the gift deed. As per Sec 23, only if the gift deed was subject to certain basic conditions / maintenance clause that are not fulfilled, only then the gift can be void. In our case, the deed was completely out of love and affection with no monetary conditions. Moreover, we are already providing the basic amenties and have never refused to providing monetary maintenance but it is not being accepted .
3) What course of action can we take in case the tribunal directs to void the gift deed.
Any help and responses appreciated.
