THE Pudong New Area People’s Court yesterday ordered a 46-year-old woman to visit her retired father once every two months, on festival holidays and on his birthday.

　　The court ruled after the 78-year-old man, surnamed Sun, filed a lawsuit against his daughter late last year.

　　Sun, a retired teacher, is living with a relative after divorcing his wife with whom he had three children.

　　In 2005, following regular disputes with his daughter, he had approached the court demanding an end to their father-daughter relationship. But the court dismissed his plea.

　　In 2011, Sun’s daughter stopped visiting him due to frequent arguments. A peeved Sun brought another lawsuit against her last year, demanding she support him financially — 1,500 yuan (US$236) every month — and pay his medical and nursing bills. He also insisted that she be asked to visit him on his birthdays and public holidays.

　　The court also learnt that Sun’s eldest daughter lived in another province while his son was mentally challenged. So the onus fell on the younger daughter to look after him, Sun claimed.

　　He insisted that he was struggling with age-related issues and needed his daughter more than ever to look after him and support him.

　　Sun’s daughter said she was unable to maintain him financially as she was a divorcee and unemployed since 2012. On the contrary, she pointed out, that her father could easily take care of himself as he received a pension of 6,050 yuan every month.

　　She claimed she was deeply hurt after her father tried to cut off all ties with her in 2005.

　　But the court said under the Chinese law, it was the child’s responsibility to look after their parents. In this case, it pointed out, the father was earning a relatively high sum as retirement pay and also had medical insurance, while his daughter was unemployed and divorced. It therefore asked the daughter to visit her father once every two months, on holidays like the Spring Festival, the Mid Autumn Festival, the Chongyang festival as well as on his birthday.