FAMILY LAW II

Topics to be covered:-
❖ Women’s Property : Stridhan and Women’s
Estate
❖ Comparative analysis of Women’s Right to
Property under various religious laws.
 STRIDHAN
Stridhan literally means woman’s property {stri means women and
dhan means property}.
Different meaning were given to ‘stridhan’ by different schools.
Stridhan constitutes those properties which a female received by way
of gift from relations or by strangers at the time of her marriage.

Enumeration of Stridhan
Gifts and bequests from relations
Such gifts may be made to woman during Maidenhood, coverture or
widowhood by her parents and their relations or by the husband and his
relation. Such gifts may be by will.
 Gifts and bequests from non-relations
Property received by way of gift or under a will of strangers that
is, other than relations, to a woman, during maidenhood or
widowhood constitutes her stridhan. The same is the position of
gifts given to a woman by strangers before the nuptial fire or at
the bridal procession.

Property acquired by self exertion, science and arts

A woman may acquire property at any stage of her life by her
own self exertion such as by manual labour, by employment, by
singing, dancing etc., or by any mechanical art.
 Property purchased with the income of stridhan
In all schools of Hindu Law it is a well settled law that the
properties purchased with stridhan or with the savings of stridhan
as well as all accumulations and savings of the income of
stridhan, constitute stridhan.

Property purchased under a compromise

When a person acquires property under a compromise; what
estate he will take in it, depends upon the compromise deed. In
Hindu Law there is no presumption that a woman who obtains
property under a compromise takes it as a limited estate.
 Property obtained by adverse possession
Any property acquired by a woman at any stage of her life by
adverse possession is her stridhan.

Property obtained in lieu of maintenance

Under all the schools of Hindu Law payments made to a Hindu
female in lump sum or periodically for her maintenance and all
the arrears of such maintenance constitute stridhan. Similarly, all
movable or immovable properties transferred to her by way of an
absolute gift in lieu of maintenance constitute her stridhan.
Stridhan has all the characteristics of absolute ownership of
property. The stridhan being her absolute property, the female
has full rights of its alienation.
This means that she can sell, gift, mortgage, lease, and
exchange her property. This is entirely true when she is a
maiden or a widow.
 But some restrictions were recognized on her power of
alienation, if she were a married woman. For a married
woman stridhan falls under two heads:
1. the sauadayika (gifts of love and affection)- gifts received
by a woman from relations on both sides (parents and
husband).
2. the non-saudayika all other types of stridhan such as gifts
from stranger.
Over the former she has full rights of disposal but over the latter
she has no right of alienation without the consent of her
husband. The husband also had the power to use it.
WOMEN’S ESTATE
Following two categories have been considered as Women’s Estate:-
Property received in inheritance
A Hindu female may inherit property from a male or a female; from her
parent’s side or from husband’s side. The Mitakshara constituted all
inherited property a stridhan, while the Privy Council held such property as
woman’s estate.

Property obtained on partition

When a partition takes place father’s wife, mother and grandmother take a
share in the joint family property. In the Mitakshara jurisdiction, including
Bombay and the Dayabhaga school it is an established view that the share
obtained on partition is not stridhan but woman’s estate.
Characteristic Features of Women’s Estate

The characteristic feature of women’s estate is that the female

takes it as a limited owner.
However, she is an owner of this property in the same way as
any other individual can be owner of his or her property,
subject to two basic limitations:-
a) She cannot ordinarily alienate the corpus
b) On her death it devolves upon the next heir of the last full
owner.
Powers Of A Hindu Female Over Her Woman’s Estate

Power of Management
Like the Karta of a Hindu joint family she has full power of
management. The Karta is merely a co-owner of the joint family,
there being other coparceners, but she is the sole owner. She
alone is entitled to the possession of the entire estate and its
income. Her power of spending the income is absolute. She need
not save and if she saves, it will be her stridhan. She alone can
sue on behalf of the estate and she alone can be sued in respect of
it
 Power of Alienation
She has limited powers of alienation, Like Karta her powers are
limited and she can alienate property only in exceptional cases.
She can alienate the property for the following:
1. Legal necessity (that is, for her own need and for the need of
the dependants of the last owner)
2. For the benefit of estate, and
3. For the discharge of indispensable duties (such as marriage
of daughters, funeral rites of her husband, his shrada and gifts
to brahmans for the salvation of his soul; that is, she can
alienate her estate for the spiritual benefit of the last owner,
but not for her own spiritual benefit.)
 Surrender
It means renunciation of estate by the female owner. She has the
power of renouncing the estate in favour of the nearest
reversioner.

Reversioners
On the death of the female owner the estate reverts to the heir
or the heirs of the last owner as if the latter died when the limited
estate ceased. Such heirs may be male or female known as
reversioners.
Right of Reversioners

The reversioners have the following three rights:

• They can sue the woman holder for an injunction to restrain
waste.
• They can in a representative capacity sue for a declaration that
alienation made by the widow is null and void and will not be
binding on them after the death of the widow.
• They can after the death of the woman or after the termination
of estate, file a suit for declaration that an alienation made by
the widow was improper and did not bind them.
 SEC 14. PROPERTY OF A FEMALE HINDU TO BE HER
ABSOLUTE PROPERTY

(1) Any property possessed by a female Hindu, whether acquired before or

after the commencement of this Act, shall be held by her as full owner
thereof and not as a limited owner.

Explanation- In this sub-section, “property” includes both movable and

immovable property acquired by a female Hindu by inheritance or devise,
or at a partition, or in lieu of arrears of maintenance, or by gift from any
person, whether a relative or not, before, at or after her marriage, or by her
own skill or exertion, or by purchase or by prescription, or in any other
manner whatsoever, and also any such property held by her as stridhana
immediately before the commencement of this Act.
(2) Nothing contained in sub-section (1) shall apply to any
property acquired by way of gift or under a will or any other
instrument or under a decree or order of a civil court or under an
award where the terms of the gift, will or other instrument or the
decree, order or award prescribe a restricted estate in such
property.
PRE-ACT WOMAN’S ESTATE
Sec-14 has been given retrospective effect. It converts existing
woman’s estate into stridhan or absolute estates. Two
conditions are necessary:
1) Ownership of the property must vest in her
2) She must be in the possession of the estate when the act came
into force.
It is well settled that if a hindu female has no title to the
property she will not become its owner even if she is in the
possession of that property.
The Supreme Court has stated “the word ‘possessed’ in sec-14
is used in the broad sense and in the context means the state of
owing or having in one’s hand or power”.
POST ACT WOMAN’S PROPERTY
Any property that a hindu female acquires after the coming into
force of the act will be her absolute property unless given to
her with limitations.
Sub sec (2) of section 14 lays down the limitations.
This sub section enacts a well established principle of law that
is if the grant is given subject to some restrictions, the grantee
will take the grant subject to those restrictions.
The object of section 14 is to remove disability of Hindu
woman and not to interfere with contracts etc. Sub sec (2) is
based on the principle of sanctity of contracts and grants.
 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
MUSLIM
Broadly the Islamic scheme of inheritance discloses three
features, which are markedly different from the Hindu law
of inheritance:
(i) the Koran gives specific shares to certain
individuals
(ii) the residue goes to the agnatic heirs and failing
them to uterine heirs and
(iii) bequests are limited to one-third of the estate, i.e.,
maximum one-third share in the property can be
willed away by the owner.
 The main principles of Islamic inheritance law which
mark an advance with regards to the pre-Islamic law of
inheritance, which have significant bearing on the property
rights of women, are:
(i) the husband or wife was made an heir
(ii) females and cognates were made competent to
inherit
(iii) parents and ascendants were given the right to
inherit even when there were male descendants and
(iv) as a general rule, a female was given one half the
share of a male
The doctrine of survivorship followed in Hindu law is not
known to Mohammedan law; the share of each Muslim heir is
definite and known before actual partition. Rights of
inheritance arise only on the death of a certain person.
The rule of representation is also not recognized under Muslim
Law.

CHRISTIAN

The laws of succession for Christians are laid down in the Indian
Succession Act, 1925 (ISA). Sections 31 to 49 deal with
Christian Succession.
The Indian Christian widow’s right is not an exclusive right
and gets curtailed as the other heirs step in. Only if the intestate
has left none who are of kindred to him, the whole of his
property would belong to his widow. Where the intestate has left
a widow and any lineal descendants, one third of his property
devolves to his widow and the remaining two thirds go to his
lineal descendants. If he has left no lineal descendants but has
left persons who are kindred to him, one half of his property
devolves to his widow and the remaining half goes to those who
are of kindred to him.
Another anomaly is a peculiar feature that the widow of a
pre-deceased son gets no share, but the children whether born
or in the womb at the time of the death would be entitled to equal
shares.
PARSI

The laws of succession for Parsis are laid down in the Indian
Succession Act, 1925 (ISA). Sections 50 to 56 deal with
Succession for Parsis.
Prima facie the property rights of the Parsis are quite gender
just. Basically, a Parsi widow and all her children, both sons
and daughters, irrespective of their marital status, get equal
shares in the property of the intestate while each parent, both
father and mother, get half of the share of each child. However,
on a closer look there are anomalies: for example, a widow of a
predeceased son who died issueless, gets no share at all.
THANK YOU !