A magistrate’s court in Mumbai this week delivered an important verdict in a domestic violence case. The court said that the husband has a legal right over the house and cannot be evicted. The wife and husband together bought a house in Byculla. The wife demanded from the court that her husband should be thrown out of this house. The court said that the husband has a legal right over the house and cannot be evicted. Besides, it is his moral duty to stay at home with his wife and daughters to take care of them, the court said. The woman and her daughters live separately. However, the court ordered the man to pay Rs 17,000 per month as maintenance to his wife. Maintenance will be paid from August 2021 when the woman first moved the court.
The woman had filed a domestic violence petition against her husband, father-in-law and in-laws. She told the court that she got married to the man in 2007. She had two daughters in 2008 and 2014. The woman further said that the man had a government job and had bought a flat with him on loan. The woman alleges that her in-laws started taunting and torturing her only after marriage when she managed the house along with her job, thinking that things would settle down later. The woman said that she was blamed for every problem. Even when her sister-in-law’s husband died in 2008, she was blamed. After this the woman left her husband’s house. Later the husband brought her home after persuading her but he put a condition that she would live in a separate house. The husband and wife started living in the flat they had bought in Byculla, but soon the woman’s in-laws also started living there. The woman alleges that after this the process of harassing her continued in the new flat as well. She was taunted for having a second child as well as a daughter.
The woman told the court that her husband has a government job and earns Rs 1 lakh 30 thousand every month. He demanded a maintenance of Rs 50,000 per month for himself. Apart from this, he also demanded only and only his rights on the flat. On the other hand, the husband denied all the allegations. The husband says that the wife had left the house in 2021 of her own free will. The man claimed in the court that he even sold his flat in Panvel to buy the house. With the money he got, he bought a new flat and a car in which the woman drives. Eventually, the court ruled that the man should pay a maintenance of Rs 17,000 per month to his wife. This decision will be applicable from August 2021, the day the woman first approached the court. However, the court rejected the woman’s demand to evict her husband from the flat.
Under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 (Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Law), a woman has no right in the ancestral property of her husband. Only the coparcener of the Hindu joint family has the right in the ancestral property. Since the wife is not a coparcener in the joint family of her husband, she has no right in the ancestral property. Yes, a woman has a right on the share her husband gets in the ancestral property. If the husband dies without making a will, the wife will have the right to such property. If a will has been written, then the property will be divided according to that.
As far as the right of a woman to live in her in-laws house is concerned, she has every right. Under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, a Hindu wife has the right to reside in her in-laws’ house, whether she owns it or not. It does not matter whether the in-laws house is an ancestral property, joint family, self-acquired or a rented house. The woman has this right to live in her in-laws’ house as long as her marital relationship with her husband remains intact. If the woman is separated from her husband then she can claim maintenance.
In October 2020, the Supreme Court in a historic decision under the Domestic Violence Act said that if a woman lodges a complaint under the Domestic Violence Act 2005, she has the right to live in a house shared with her in-laws, even if it is a rented house. Or the house is owned by the in-laws and her husband has no ownership in it. This important decision has given great relief to the women victims of domestic violence. Now the in-laws cannot force such women to leave the house on the ground that the husband has no ownership in that house.
In May 2022, the Supreme Court clarified the scope of ‘shared house’ in one of its decisions. The Supreme Court said that the woman has the right to live in a shared house. Whatever religion a woman belongs to, whether she is a mother, a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother-in-law, a daughter-in-law or belongs to any other category of domestic relations, she is allowed to live in a shared household. have the right to live. He cannot be thrown out of that house. Justice M.R. Shah and Justice B. V. Nagaratna’s bench made it clear in its decision that even if a woman decides to live with her husband at some other place after marriage due to studies, employment, job or any other valid reason, even then her stay in the shared house is not valid. The right will remain. Section 17(1) of the Domestic Violence Act gives him this right.
However, the wife’s right to reside in the shared household is not permanent. Some exceptions have also been made by the courts from time to time. In March 2022, the Delhi High Court said in one of its decisions that if the mother-in-law’s property is there, then the daughter-in-law’s right to live in it is not permanent. Mother-in-law and father-in-law can drive her out of their house. In this case the father-in-law was 74 years old and the mother-in-law was 69 years old. The court said that both are in the twilight of their lives and they have the right to live peacefully at such times. His peace should not be snatched because of the matrimonial dispute of his son and daughter-in-law.
Similarly, the Supreme Court also said in January 2022 in a case related to domestic violence that if the daughter-in-law harasses her elderly in-laws, they can throw her out of the house owned by them. We have already explained in the ‘Haq Ki Baat’ series on what rights do daughters-in-law have from in-laws’ house to property, which you can click here to read in detail.
Some other articles of ‘Haq Ki Baat’ series