Property Right: Husband has no right on wife's property, Supreme Court gives historic decision

Right to Property: The husband has no right on the wife's property. The Supreme Court, in a historic judgment, said that a husband has no control over his wife's 'Stridhan' (woman's property). Although he may use it in times of crisis, it is his moral obligation to return it to his wife. The Supreme Court has said this in a historic decision. The Supreme Court directed a man to pay Rs 25 lakh to a woman in exchange for her lost gold. In this case, the woman claimed that her family had gifted her 89 gold coins at the time of marriage. Besides, after marriage, her father had also given a check of Rs 2 lakh to her husband.

The husband and his mother kept all the wife's jewelery

According to the woman, on the first night of the marriage, the husband took all her jewelery in his possession under the guise of keeping it safe and handed it over to his mother. She alleged that the husband and his mother had misused all the jewelery to satisfy their already existing financial debts. The Family Court held in 2011 that the husband and his mother had rightfully misused the gold jewelery of the Appellant and she was entitled to compensation for the loss caused by the misuse.

Wife's property is not joint property with husband

The Kerala High Court partially rejected the relief granted by the family court and said that the woman was not able to prove misappropriation of gold jewelery by her husband and his mother. After this the woman approached the Supreme Court against the High Court order. The bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Dipankar Dutta said that 'Stridhan' property is not the joint property of husband and wife.

Stridhan includes all these things

Any property gifted to a woman before marriage, at the time of marriage, at the time of separation or after marriage is her stridhan property. Citing an earlier decision, the bench said that the husband has no control over his marital property. He may use it in times of crisis, but he still has a moral obligation to return the property or its value to his wife.