Women is the absolute owner of 'Stridhan'

Recently Supreme Court in a case,  held that women has exclusive right over her Stridhan.

What is Stridhan?

It includes every movable ,immovable property ,gifts,etc recieved by women prior to her marriage ,at the time of her marriage, at the time of child birth  and the time of her widowhood.

The division bench of the supreme court quashed the FIR by a father of the divorced women for recovering of the STRIDHAN.

The Supreme Court affirmed that only the women has absolute right and nobody, not the husband and not even her father has a right over her Stridhan.

The father filed the FIR after 5 years of her divorce and 3 years of remarriage. The charge sheet was filed under section 406 IPC Criminal breach of trust and Section 6 of Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.

The bench noticed that the FIR failed to meet the criteria of section 406 IPC criminal breach of trust.

Section 405, IPC which governs the criminal  breach of trust says that,  Whosoever entrusted with the property misappropriates the property or converts it to his own use commits criminal breach of trust.

The court went by the definition and found that the Complainants have never entrusted the Stridhan to the appellants and the appellants have never converted it for their own use. 

The Court further observed that FIR was filed after a significant delay without providing any reason for the delay.

The court cited some cases , Pratibha Rani vs Suraj Kumar, Rashmi kumar vs Mahesh kumar Bhada , Maya Gopinathan vs Anoop SB ,where the Court claimed that women has a exclusive right over her 'Stridhan' and none of her relatives can claim that.

The Court further noted that under Section 14 of Hindu Succession Act ,1956 the Hindu female is absolute owner of her property which also includes 'Stridhan'.