The Karnataka High Court has recently held that the husband and his family can’t retain any of the articles that the woman has carried to her matrimonial home even after the marriage is declared null and void.

The observation came when single bench justice M. Nagaprasanna was dealing with a case where the woman initiated a criminal proceedings u.s 406 IPC against her ex-husband and in-laws.

In this case, the ex-husband and his parents had challenged a March 2015 order by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Bangalore that dismissed their application seeking discharge from proceedings started by the wife against them u.s 406 IPC.
The petitioners submitted before the court that nothing was to be paid to the ex-wife because as per divorce terms Rs 4 lakh was paid to her for the settlement of divorce and that only the issue of maintenance was left to be decided.

On the other hand, the ex-wife said that the permanent alimony of Rs 4 lakh did not contain the amount paid to petitioners before marriage (Rs 9 Lakh). It was also submitted that the petitioners (husband and his family) not returning the said Stridhan is a criminal breach of trust.

At the outset, the High Court observed that the annulment was based on a permanent alimony amount of Rs 4 lakh but the Rs 9 lakh given prior to marriage by the woman’s family is a separate Stridhan. The settlement of Rs 4 lakh earlier was only for the purpose of annulment of marriage and no judicial fora had determined the annulment amount would include Rs 9 lakh of Stridhan.

Significantly, the court ruled that annulment of marriage does not mean that the woman’s Stridhan can be retained by the petitioners.
Thus the court proceeded to dismiss the petition by the husband and his family.

Title: Ganesh Prasad Hegde & Ors versus Surekha Shetty

Case No.: Crl Petition No.: 4544/2018