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Assignment Task – 1

Name – Simran Singh

Registration Number – 12003060
Section - L2001
Course Code – Law 206
Course title - Family law II
Course Instructor – Dr. Abhilasha Joshi Kataria
Task – Continuous Assignment I

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INDEX

I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………….........04
II. STRIDHAN : ABSOLUTE WEALTH OF A WOMAN………..04
III. REQUIREMENTS OF STRIDHAN………………….…………05
IV. SOURCES OF STRIDHAN………………………..……………05
V. POWER OVER HER STRIDHAN………………...……………06
VI. LEGAL STATUS OF STRIDHAN……………...………………07
VII. CASE LAWS………………………………..………………08 - 10
VIII. SUGGESTIONS…………………………….……………………11
IX. CONCLUSION……………………………...……………………11
X. BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………...............................12

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank my Family Law professor Dr. Abhilasha Joshi Kataria for giving me this
opportunity to do this assignment.
I would also like to thank my mother and sister who helped me in finishing this assignment
within the stipulated time period.

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INTRODUCTION
Ancient patriarchal India has witnessed the backlash of equality and empowerment over
the course of several decades. ‘The Secret History of Wonder Woman’ by Jill Lepore has
provided an insight into the miserable lives of the woman juggling the ingredients of
marriage, family and education together. The ancient text of Manusmriti has elucidated
the suppression and subjugation of women, who were often leashed by men in the ancient
patriarchal society. In the text of Manusmriti, Manu wrote “Her father protects her in
childhood, her husband protects her in youth and her sons protect her in old age; a
woman is never fit for independence” highlighting the plights of every woman chained
with dependence and repression. The tears for striving equality, empowerment and
independence were finally wiped off and the shackles of dependence, suppression and
subjugation of women were broken by the waves of feminism introducing the suffrage,
equality movements and the legal rights of Hindu women to inherit property.

STRIDHANA: ABSOLUTE WEALTH OF A WOMAN

The word ‘Stridhana’ has been derived from ‘Stri’ (woman) and ‘dhana’ (property). In
this way, stridhana etymologically means a woman’s property. The concept of stridhana
has come down all the centuries from the Hindu Smritis but today, it has engulfed all
forms of marriages in all visible castes and regions.

Stridhana is any valuable property including land, ornaments, etc, which is exclusively
owned by the woman. Stridhana is a woman’s property over which she has got absolute
power of disposal. Stridhana is different from other kinds of property held by a woman
known as a woman’s estate

After the commencement of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, any property owned by a
Hindu female is her absolute property under Section 14(1) of the Act except the property
which is covered by Section 14(2).

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REQUIREMENTS OF STRIDHAN

Whether a particular property is Stridhana or not would depend on the following factors:

 The status of the woman at the time of acquisition of property, i.e. whether she
was unmarried, married or a widow;
 The source from which the property was acquired; and
 The school of Hindu law to which the woman belonged.

SOURCES OF STRIDHAN

According to section 14 (1) of The Hindu Succession Act, 1956, the sources of stridhan
include the following elements:

 Gifts and bequeaths from relations.

 Gifts and bequeaths from strangers during marriage.
 Property obtained at partition or devise.
 Property given in place of maintenance.
 Property acquired by inheritance.
 Property acquired by skill or exertion.
 Property acquired by adverse possession.
 Property purchased with the savings her income.

POWER OVER HER STRIDHAN

POWER OF MANAGEMENT: Under this power, the powers and authority for managing
the stridhan or woman’s estate is totally vested on that woman. Being the sole owner, she
is deemed to be superior to the other members including the Karta of the Joint Hindu

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Family. She not only has an absolute entitlement to the possession, maintenance and
income of her estate, but also the freedom to spend or invest her earnings (Stridhan) at
her own discretion. The power to sue and to be sued on behalf of her estate is vested on
her. The concerned woman remains the sole owner of her estate until her death,
surrender, adoption or re-marriage.

POWER OF ALIENATION – Under the power of alienation, the women can alienate her
estate or property under the following circumstances: In regard to alienation, the women
may, under the following circumstances, alienate their property –

 Legal necessity involving her own need or the need of dependents of the previous
owner.
 For the benefit of the estate.
 To release the indispensable religious duties like the marriage of daughters, the
funeral ceremony of husband, etc. She has the discretion to alienate for the benefits of
the previous owner, rather than her own personal gain.

POWER TO RELINQUISH: Under the power to relinquish, relinquishment means the

surrender of the estate by the female owner. It can either be undertaken on a voluntary
basis by a woman during her lifetime or immediately by her death. The woman has the
power to renounce her estate in favor of her closest heir, and the self renouncement on
her part will obliterate all her rights over the property. The law under this context was
drawn out by the Supreme Court in the case of Natvarlal Punjabhai and Another v
Dadubhai Manubhai And Others, which laid the following conditions for surrender:

 It must be for the whole estate, although a small portion can remain for its upkeep or
maintenance.
 Surrender must be made in favor of reversionary.
 Surrender must be bonafide and not a means of dividing the estate between the
reversionary.

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LEGAL STATUS OF STREEDHAN

The S. 405 of IPC reads as follows:

“Whoever, being in any manner entrusted with property, or with any dominion over
property, dishonestly misappropriates or converts to his own use that property, or
dishonestly uses or disposes of that property in violation of any direction of law
prescribing the mode in which such trust is to be discharged, or of any legal contract,
express or implied, which he has made touching the discharge of such trust, or willfully
suffers any other person so to do, commits ‘criminal breach of trust.

The offence under Section 405 can be said to have committed only when all of its
essential ingredients are found to have been satisfied. As in the case of criminal
misappropriation, even a temporary misappropriation could be sufficient to warrant a
conviction under this section. Even if the accused intended to restore the property in the
future, at the time misappropriation, it is a criminal breach of trust.If her husband or any
other member of his family who are in possession of such property, dishonestly
misappropriate or refuse to return the same, they may be liable to punishment for the
offence of criminal breach of trust under S. 405 & 406 IPC.

APPLICATION UNDER ALLIED LAWS

A woman’s right to her Streedhan is protected under law. S. 14 of the Hindu Succession
Act, 1956 R/w S. 27 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 make a female Hindu an absolute
owner of such property.

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It is, therefore, manifest that the position of Streedhan of a Hindu married woman’s
property during covertures is absolutely clear and unambiguous; she is the absolute
owner of such property and can deal with it in any manner she likes-she may spend the
whole of it or give it away at her own pleasure by gift or will without any reference to her
husband.

Ordinarily, the husband has no right or interest in it with the sole exception that in times
of extreme distress, as in famine, illness or the like, the husband can utilize it but he is
morally bound to restore it or its value when he is able to do so. This right is purely
personal to the husband and the property so received by him in marriage cannot be
proceeded against even in execution of a decree for debt, such being the nature and
character of Streedhan of a woman. If her husband or any other member of his family
who is in possession of such property, dishonestly misappropriates or refuse to return the
same, they may be liable to punishment for the offence of criminal breach of trust under
S. 405 & 406 IPC.

S. 12 of the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 provides for women right to her Streedhan in
cases where she is a victim of domestic violence. The provisions of this law can be easily
invoked for the recovery of Streedhan. Under the residence orders: Prov. (8) the
magistrate may direct the respondent to return to the possession of the aggrieved person
her Streedhan or any other property or valuable security to which she is entitled.

Again u/s 18(ii) of the Domestic Violence Act the law says that a woman is entitled to
receive the possession of the Streedhan, jewelry, clothes, and other necessary items. The
term ‘economic abuse’ has also been provided under the Act. It includes deprivation of
all or any economic or financial resources to which the woman is entitled under al the
existing customary laws whether payable at the concern of the court or in any other
manner. These resources are however not limited to the household necessities of the
aggrieved person.

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CASE LAWS

In Chinnappa Govinda v. Vallaimmal, the father-in-law died after giving some property
to her widowed daughter-in-law under a maintenance deed for the purpose of her
maintenance. At the time of partition of coparcenary propety, the daughter-in-law asked
for her share for maintenance but the other family refused to give her on the pretext that
she has to include the properties that were given to her in the maintenance deed in order
to claim her share from the coparcenary property. In this case, the court ruled in favor of
the daughter in law and held that she need not to surrender the properties that were held
by her under the maintenance deed as nowhere in the maintenance deed the father has
mentioned to do so.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court in Vinod Kumar Sethi v. Punjab State has given an
important decision with respect to stridhan. According to this High Court whatever has
been received by a bride in marriage or whatever has been gifted to her falls under
stridhan. The court divided the gifts and dowry given to her under three heads. First,
those items which are given to the bride for her exclusive use; secondly, those which are
to be used by her and her husband jointly and thirdly, those which, are to be used by her
husband and in laws. Over the first category she has the exclusive right and she is the
exclusive owner thereof; over those coming under the second category the court’s view
was that by saying that both the spouses have the right to use it will not extinguish the
right of ownership of the wife even then. In case the marriage breaks or right of
ownership of the wife even then. In case the marriage breaks or right of ownership of the

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wife even then. In case the marriage breaks or according to the above decision all such
gifts and presentations which fall under the first two categories are termed as stridhan.

In a later case namely, Pratibha Rani vs. Suraj Kumar the Supreme Court disagreed
with the above view of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and held that whatever gifts,
presentations and dowry articles are given to a woman in marriage, would be regarded as
her absolute property. All the gold ornaments, clothes and other items of dowry given at
the time of marriage to a Hindu female are her Stridhan and she enjoys complete control
over it. The mere fact that she is living with her husband and using the dowry items
jointly does not make any difference and affect her right of absolute ownership over
them. The court observed, it cannot be said that once a woman enters her matrimonial
home she completely loses her exclusive stridhan by the same being treated as a joint
property of the spouses.

HOW TO KEEP A CHECK ON STRIDHAN (SUGGESTIONS)

It is suggested that married women should maintain a list of their stridhana and must take
care of its security, for instance, keeping their jewellery in bank lockers which are opened
in their single names. Following are some precautionary steps that should be followed to
keep a check on stridhan:

 Women should maintain a list of all the gifts received before, after and at the time of
marriage from her parents, in-laws, relatives, and friends.
 She should keep a record of all the evidence for the gifts, she should make sure that
the gifts and the bills are in her name and are kept carefully. Wedding pictures may
also be kept as a piece of evidence.
 Women should have witnesses for gifts at the time of marriage.

CONCLUSION

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Section 14 of The Hindu Succession Act 1956 has abolished certain women’s estate and
in respect of woman’s estate which are outside the purview of section 14, a reversioner’s
right under old Hindu Law still endures. Section 14(1) has qualified retrospective
application, it converts only those woman’s estates into full estates over which she has
possession when the Act came into force. It does not apply to those woman’s estates over
which the Hindu female has no possession when the Act came into force; in such a case
old Hindu Law continues to apply. Section 14(2) uses the words “any other instrument”.
Applying the principle of ejusdem generis, these words should be read along with the
preceding words, “acquired by way of gift or under a will” and would thus mean the
instruments under which the title to property has been converted to Hindu female.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

 WEBSITES
 Indiankanoon.in
 Legalbites com

 ARTICLES

 Law on Stridhan , by Suresh Ram , available on ijtr.nic.in

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