India, Feb. 15 -- Simply being a senior citizen does not automatically entitle a person to receive maintenance from children unless shown that they are unable to maintain themselves from own earnings or out of own property, the Orissa high court has held in a judgement.

In a case in which a 69-year-old man in Odisha's Rayagada district alleged that his son is not maintaining him, the single bench of judge Sashikanta Mishra held that simply being a senior citizen does not automatically entitle a person to receive maintenance from his children. "The inability to maintain himself from his own earnings or out of property owned by him is a precondition for claiming maintenance under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens A...