Sandesh24X7
New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India declared that a woman is the sole owner of her ‘Streedhan,’ which includes gold ornaments and other assets given by her parents at the time of marriage.
The court clarified that after a divorce, her father has no authority to demand the return of those gifts from her former in-laws.
Streedhan refers to the gifts, including money and property, that a woman receives from her parents, relatives, or in-laws. The bench reiterated that a female has the ‘singular right’ and sole authority over her streedhan.
The apex court was pronouncing a ruling in the case where the father of a woman married in December 1999 sought the return of his daughter’s streedhan three years after her remarriage.
After 16 years of marriage, the daughter filed for divorce, and in February 2016, a Louis County Circuit Court in Missouri approved the divorce by mutual consent. In May 2018, she got married again.
The case was dismissed by the Supreme Court, which declared that a woman is the sole owner of her streedhan and that neither her father nor her spouse may make any claims to it.
Justice Sanjay Karol, writing the judgment, stated, “The jurisprudence, as has been developed by this court, is unequivocal concerning the singular right of the female (wife or former wife as the case may be) being the sole owner of ‘street dhan’.
