Money or jewellery gifted to a woman by her family cannot be used by the husband to purchase property in the name of another woman, a court in Ahmedabad has ruled.
Ahmedabad Metropolitan Magistrate K.B. Maghnani has granted a stay on the sale of property which was purchased in the joint name of the husband, Mukesh Makwana, and another woman from the ‘wedding gift’ brought by his wife, Pinakini Makwana.
The judgment came Friday but was made available late Saturday.
‘Such purchase cannot be in the joint name of anybody except the husband and wife,’ the judge ruled.
Pinakini Makwana had registered a complaint of domestic violence, dowry and harassment against her husband Mukesh Makwana, her mother-in-law, sister-in-law and others, at Amraiwadi police station of Ahmedabad. She alleged in her complaint that her husband and others had harassed, assaulted and mentally tortured her on various occasions after her marriage.
She had also alleged that her husband was not honest to her and was having an extra-marital affair with a married woman for the last three years. The complaint also mentioned that apart from her husband’s affair, longing for a male child in the family was one of the major reasons for the assault and harassment as she had a daughter from her marriage.
She alleged that her husband had coercively taken Rs.1.20 lakh from her father and sold all her jewellery to purchase a house in the joint name of himself and the other woman.
Pinakini said she had been turned out of the house by her husband along with her baby on Feb 19. The protection officer of Domestic Violence, V.R. Parmar had registered a complaint of domestic violence on March 12. Following Pinakini’s complaint, Mukesh and the others were arrested by the police for breach of Domestic Violence Act and section 498 of the Indian Penal Code – and are in Sabarmati Central Prison now.
The metropolitan magistrate during the first hearing of the case remarked that a husband cannot purchase property with money taken coercively from his in-laws especially when it’s not even in a joint name with his wife and imposed the stay on sale of the property.
Both Pinakini and the husband of the ‘other’ woman have filed for divorce from their respective spouses.
