Dear All,
The following is for General Information and future case reference.
Appeared in "Times of India", Mumbai edition, dated 05 August'2008, page no. 11.
The technical question is : "Now CAN the husband demand for "legal" dowry in the guise of "seeking wife's share in family's ancestral property (whether movable or immovable)".
My personal opinion/understanding is "YES ... now the husbands can color-code the "dowry" word to "share in her ancestral property" to demand "legal" dowry (that is movable or immovable property). In fact now the husbands can legally give legal notice asking for share in the wife's ancestral property.
Comments, please...
If appropriate case law reference is available with anybody, please mentioned it here with details.
Keep Smiling ... Hemant Agarwal
Seeking wife’s share in family property is not dowry: SC
New Delhi: In a legal regime which takes a very strong view of dowry deaths, there appears to be a small respite for husbands. For, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that asking for the wife’s share in ancestral property from in-laws would not come under the definition of “dowry”.
This judgment could become a small but significant breather for husbands, on whom the courts virtually impose the onus of coming clean of dowry death charges if their wives die an unnatural death within seven years of marriage and there had been past allegations of harassment.
“Demanding her share in the ancestral property will not amount to a dowry demand,” said a bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and Harjit Singh Bedi.
