Women Have Right to Stay at In-Laws’ house: Supreme Court
On 15th October 2020 Supreme Court gave a landmark judgment that the daughter in law has the right to stay in the House of In laws. The apex court said that as per the domestic violence act a daughter in law has right to claim residential rights at our in laws house both during and after the proceedings of domestic violence.
The three judge bench headed by honorable justice Ashok Bhushan reversed its previous decision given in Tarun Batra case. When in Tarun Batra case the, a two judge bench had given the decision that a woman has no right to live in property owned by husband’s parents. In that case the court claimed that the daughter in law only has rights in her husband’s property.
But now in the recent decision the top court held that the wife also has the right in ‘shared household’ of the joint family. Because as per Section (2) of the Domestic Violence Act, a wife under domestic violence has the legal right in the ‘share household’. Share household means the shared property of the family and also the ancestral House of her mother in law.
So this order hand reversed in the previous verdict which was made in 2005 by the Supreme Court according to which the wife is only entitled to a share household only where the person aggrieved lives or at any stage had lived in a domestic relationship. But now as per section 17(1) of domestic violence act every woman in a domestic relationship will have the right to reside in the shared household, regardless off her title and beneficial interest in it.
So this is a big win for the women who are mistreated and tortured by their in laws. Now the aggrieved daughter in laws had the right to claim the share household of the joint family under domestic violence act.
Similarly on August 12, the Apex court ruled that the daughters have Coparcenary right in a joint in the joint Hindu family property. The three judge bench consisted of Justice Arun Mishra, S Nazeer, and MR Shah held that the provisions contained in section 6 of Hindu succession act, 1956 Gives the status of coparcener to the daughters, as equal to sons, no matter whether they are born before or after the amendment. So both these decisions are in favor of women and our country is trying to improve the plight of the women.
As discussed above the shared household refers to the property owned by a woman’s husband bored by the joint family of which husband is a member. But this does not include the property which is self acquired by any family member. So in order to improve the condition of women in the country our judiciary is continuously trying to amend the provisions so that the status of women gets at par with men
