Homemaker wife who toils for family entitled to equal share in assets purchased by husband: Madras High Court
A housewife manages the house, sacrifices her own dreams to enable the husband to step out and earn, and contributes equally towards acquisition of family assets and is ,therefore, entitled to half the share in all the assets acquired by her husband in his own name, the Madras High Court recently held.
A housewife manages the house, sacrifices her own dreams to enable the husband to step out and earn, and contributes equally towards acquisition of family assets and is ,therefore, entitled to half the share in all the assets acquired by her husband in his own name, the Madras High Court recently held.
In a judgement passed on June 21, Justice Krishnan Ramasamy held that while no legislation has been enacted so far in India to recognise the contributions made by a wife either directly or indirectly, the Court could very well recognise such contribution.
"The contribution which wives make towards acquisition of the family assets by performing their domestic chores, thereby releasing their husbands for gainful employment, would be a factor which, this Court would specifically take into account while deciding the right in the properties either the title stand in the name of the husband or wife and certainly, the spouse who looks after the home and cares for family for decades, entitled to a share in the property. If, on marriage, she gives up her paid work in order to devote herself to caring for her husband and children, it is an unwarrantable hardship when in consequence she finds herself in the end with nothing she can call her own," the High Court said.
Hence, if the acquisition of assets is made by joint contribution, directly or indirectly, of both the spouses for the welfare of the family, both would be entitled to equal share, the Court underscored.
The judge, therefore, allowed the appeal filed by one Kamsala Ammal, who had sought a share in the properties that were in the name of her deceased husband.
