Only senior citizen or parent aggrieved by order of Maintenance Tribunal alone may prefer appeal against such order

Any class of persons other than a senior citizen or a parent have no right to file an appeal against the order of the Maintenance Tribunal.

It is elementary that an appeal is a creature of a statute and no right of appeal inheres in any person unless such right is expressly conferred by any statute. Merely because a class of persons has been conferred the right to prefer an appeal while another class may have not been given such right, ipso facto, would not make the appellate provision vulnerable to any challenge under Article 14 of the Constitution. It is possible for a right of appeal to be hedged with conditions or even a right of appeal to be granted to a class of persons and not granted to another. It is the wisdom of the legislature to decide what classes of persons would be entitled to the right of appeal and what conditions may be attached to the exercise of such right and how such right may be exercised. At the highest, an appellate provision may be assailed as unreasonable as falling foul of constitutional principles, particularly under Article 14 thereof.

Right of appeal that inheres in a party to the lis at the time of initiation of the lis may also be subsequently taken away by the legislature, the only caveat being that such a right must be expressly taken away and such right cannot be seen to be extinguished by implication. When the clear words of a statute do not permit any other meaning or interpretation, particularly when it pertains to a right of appeal, additional words cannot be read into the provision to discover a right in favour of a class of persons excluded by necessary implication in the appellate provision.