In Indian cultural ethos, parents’ care and well-being have been children’s priority in the well-understood family system. With the fast-changing life pattern, it has become necessary to deliberate on providing care and protection to parents and senior citizens in contemporary society. When individuals fail in fulfilling their pious and legal obligations towards parents, then it is the state that steps in the way and provides maintenance and looks after the well-being of the senior citizens through a formal legal system. The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007 is the legislation that provides a legal mechanism for the maintenance and welfare of parents and senior citizens. This paper exhibits a debate on personal and public laws where certain pious, proprietary, and legal obligations of a son, grandson, and great-grandson, if not obeyed, then the public law enters the family affairs and provides due legal protection to parents and senior citizens. Further, in this paper, the authors attempt to analyse the legal provisions and judicial pronouncements on the maintenance and welfare of parents and senior citizens within family relations, failing which a formal legal mechanism as provided by the state in the said Act takes care of parents and senior citizens. At the end of the paper, the authors attempt to suggest suitable solutions to provide maintenance and welfare of parents and senior citizens, from the socio-legal perspective.