ruhaani 29 May 2016

Residential rights of daughter in matrimonial home..

Hi
Its common practice now a days to disowned bride and son in planned way and take them out from matrimonial home.
My in-laws had been torturing me from day one of my marriage. They took all my gold including my mangal sutra and engagement ring and kept everything in their custody. They even demanded my salary and when I refused my husband and inlaws planned this conspiracy. Without my knowledge they kept going to police station and kept filing false complaints against me and my family when I used to go to my work. They used to torture me at home. Then one day my husband shifted to a rented accommodation and kept insisting that I go with him. As I was not aware of such conspiracies happening in society, I agreed to shift with him. But they did not allow that as well and kept insisting that i go to y home. One day when I came back from work they locked the door and did not allow me to enter my matrimonial house and showed the newspaper clipings where they had disowned me and their son. within two days I got court papers that they had filed for permanent injunction. They kept all my stuff, istridhan etc and saying that they have nothing. The permanent injunction case is in court. We have filed dv and my husband has filed for divorce. My matrimonial house is in the name of my mother in-law. Please tell me if they are such cases in which the court had decided in favour of daughter in-law as rented accommodation thing was just and eye wash and I always stayed in my matrimonial house and never in the rented accommodation. Also, whoever has experienced such a conspiracy by their inlaws pls write to me.

Also, pls tell me how much money and time it takes to transfer a case from one court to another..

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2 Replies

(Guest)

Residence rights of wife is written in very vague language as per the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005. The language created confusion and absurd conclusions.
In S.R Batra vs Taruna Batra 15 Dec 2006 the Supreme Court of India provided clearer interpretation of this right.
The court ruled as follows: "in our opinion the wife is only entitled to claim a right to residence in a shared household, and a shared household would only mean the house belonging to or taken on rent by the husband, or the house which belongs to the joint family of which the husband is a member. The property in question in the present case neither belongs to Amit Batra nor was it taken on rent by him nor is it a joint family property of which the husband Amit Batra is a member. It is the exclusive property of appellant No. 2, mother of Amit Batra. Hence it cannot be called a shared household."
As per this interpretation you have no right to stay in house owned by mother in law.
Transfer of cases between courts depends where you want to transfer. If transfer is happening across states (two places falls under different High Court jurisdiction) then transfer can only be done via Supreme Court of India. Minimum cost of petitions in Supreme Court of India is around 1 Lac rupees.
If you have low income then you can avail Legal Aid Scheme and get help to lower cost.

saravanan s (legal advisor) 29 May 2016

The sreedhan is your own property and your in-laws can't hold it under their possession. If you want to recover it you can file for sreedhan recovery u|s 406 IPC for criminal breach of trust