Achi news desk-
Supreme Court (case)
– Photo: ANI
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The Supreme Court made an important comment in a case related to the property of a married couple. The Supreme Court said that the husband has no control over his wife’s ‘stridan’ (property of the wife). The case of the woman, who approached the Supreme Court to fight for her rights in this more than ten-year-old case, was heard by a bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Dipankar Dutta. The court made an important comment regarding the husband’s control over his wife’s stridden. The court said that in times of crisis the husband can use his wife’s ‘striden’, but it is his moral duty to return the property. The court said this important thing in its decision while ordering to return 25 lakhs to the woman instead of her lost gold.
Accusations of misappropriation of jewelry against husband and mother
According to the woman, her husband took all the jewelry at his disposal on the first night of the marriage. In the name of keeping the jewels safe, he gave them to his mother. According to the woman, her husband and mother-in-law misused her jewelry to settle their old debts. After the case came to court, the Family Court found the woman’s claims correct in its decision made in 2011. The court ordered the husband and his mother to compensate for the damage caused by the said abuse. The matter later reached the Kerala High Court. Here the court partially rejected the relief granted by the family court, saying that the wife failed to prove misappropriation of the gold jewelry by the husband and his mother.
A husband has no right over his wife’s streedhan
However, when the matter came to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court said, ‘Stridan’ is not joint property of a wife and a husband. The husband as owner has no independent control over such property. The court clarified that assets given as a gift to a woman before, during marriage or during separation or after her marriage are stridden assets. This is the full property of the woman. He has every right to dispose of them at will. The husband has no control over it.
The trial took place in three courts, justice was served after 13 years
In fact, in this case the woman claimed that her family had gifted 89 gold coins at the time of the marriage. Besides, the father also gave a check of Rs 2 lakh to the husband. This property dispute was first referred to the Kerala Family Court, where the wife’s claim was found to be true. Subsequently, the Kerala High Court set aside this order. Dissatisfied with the order of the Kerala High Court, the woman approached the Supreme Court, where the court found her contention correct.
