Annulment of marriage cannot mean that all the articles that the woman carried to the matrimonial house in the form of s tridhana can be retained by the family of husband, said the High Court of Karnataka.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna made these observations while refusing to quash a criminal proceedings initiated against a man and his parents based on a complaint lodged by his former wife for not returning ₹9 lakh that was given as s tridhana by her parents during marriage 24 years ago. The litigants belong to the Bunt community.
It was pointed out behalf of the petitioners that the marriage was declared as annulled on a decree passed by the Bombay High Court in 2014 and it was agreed in that degree that annulment was on the final payment of ₹4 lakh as alimony to her. They had also claimed that she cannot lay claim for any other payment except alimony granted by the court.
However, justice Nagaprasanna pointed out that payment of ₹4 lakh was arrived between the parties only for the annulment of marriage and at no point of time the issue of stridhana was part of proceedings on annulment of marriage.
“No judicial fora have determined the annulment amount to include ₹9 lakh of s tridhana as this was never the claim in the divorce proceedings between the parties,” the court observed.
Referring judgments of various High Courts and the apex court, the judge pointed out that articles that form stridhana cannot be retained by the family or the husband as they are in temporary possession of them and have to be returned, and failure to return would attract offence of criminal breach of trust under Section 405 of Indian Penal Code.
Following this order, the man and his parents have to now face trial in the criminal proceedings for criminal breach of trust for not returning the undisputed fact that ₹9 lakh was received as s tridhana.
