State draft Bill proposes 2-year jail term for abandoning senior citizens

Bengaluru: The state government has drafted a Bill for the protection of senior citizens from abuse and neglect that calls for two-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1 lakh in cases of abandonment.

A 12-member expert committee that vetted the draft Karnataka Protection of Senior Citizens from Abuse and Neglect Bill, 2025, has even suggested making abandonment a non-bailable offence with three-year imprisonment.

Currently, the Karnataka Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Rules enforce the existing central law and the state has no separate law.

Sources in the Department for the Empowerment of Differently Abled and Senior Citizens said the expert committee — comprising, among others, members from the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority, the police department and NGOs — has already submitted its recommendations. The comprehensive Bill encompasses all aspects of senior citizens’ safety, security and fundamental rights. The draft lays down penalties for abuse and neglect of senior citizens, grievance redressal mechanisms in caregiving institutions and technological interventions, among others, which are absent in the set of rules.

“It was imperative to have a Bill that extensively covered all aspects related to senior citizens because the rules (2007) are not holistic,”
said an official in the department.

The draft Bill becomes necessary at a time when Karnataka has seen a significant rise in crimes against senior citizens in the past few years, according to the data of the National Crime Records Bureau. In 2024, the state recorded 4,247 cases as against 1,840 and 1,583 cases in 2023 and 2022, respectively.

The department has suggested a 13-member committee to look into the financial implications of the proposals in the bill.

Rules amendments

In August this year, the state government had informed the Karnataka High Court that the state law commission’s 73rd report on amendments
to the Senior Citizens’ Rules was under “active consideration”.

While the department is working on the amendments, it is not clear whether they would be incorporated in the bill.

On whether the draft Bill would be tabled in the Assembly during the Budget Session 2027, a source in the department said it was unlikely.

“Once we get the opinion of all departments, we have to finalise the draft and again send it to the Law Department for vetting. Then the Cabinet has to pass it... so all these procedures are there and it is highly unlikely (to table the draft Bill during the Budget session),” the source said, adding that it may be tabled in June-July.

Recently, the Keralam Assembly passed the Senior Citizens’ (Care and Protection of Rights) Bill, 2026.