The Supreme Court has said that a husband has no control over his wife’s ‘Stridhan’ and even though he can use it in times of crisis, he has a moral obligation to return it to his wife. The court also directed the woman to return her gold worth Rs 25 lakh to her husband.
What was the matter?
The woman had claimed that her family had gifted her 89 gold coins at the time of her marriage. After marriage, her father also gave a check of Rs 2 lakh to her husband. According to the woman, on the first night of the marriage, the husband took all her jewelery and gave it to his mother on the pretext of keeping it safe. The woman alleged that her husband and his mother misused all her jewelery to pay off their debts. The Family Court had held in 2011 that the husband and his mother had in fact misused the gold jewelery of the appellant woman and hence she was entitled to be compensated for the loss.
The Kerala High Court partially rejected the relief granted by the Family Court, saying that the woman could not prove misappropriation of gold jewelery by the husband and his mother. Then the woman approached the Supreme Court. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Dutta said that ‘Stridhan’ is not the joint property of the wife and husband, and the husband has no right or independent dominion over the property as the owner.
What is stridhan?
The properties gifted to a woman before, during and after marriage are her ‘Stridhan’. It is her complete property and she can do whatever she wants with it.
What did the court say in the decision?
The top court said the woman has successfully initiated proceedings to recover the money in exchange for 89 gold coins. Its value in the year 2009 was Rs 8.90 lakh. The bench said, ‘Upholding the decision of the Family Court during this period, without any further consideration, would be injustice to him. Keeping in view the passage of time, the rising cost of living and the interest of equality and justice, we deem it appropriate to award a sum of Rs 25,00,000 to the appellant in exercise of the power conferred by Article 142 of the Constitution.’
Also read-
Woman cannot file case of cruelty against ex-husband after divorce: Supreme Court
Big decision of Supreme Court, 14 year old rape victim allowed to abort pregnancy at 30 weeks
Latest India News