Meaning

The term Stridhan literally translates into women’s property. ‘Stri’ means women and ‘Dhan’ means property. It consists of movable and immovable property. The historical background of Stridhan is as old as the Hindu law.As per Hindu Law, Streedhan is whatever a women receives during her life time. Streedhan includes all movable, immovable property gifts etc received by women prior to marriage, at the time of marriage, during child birth and during her widowhood

Characteristic Features of Woman/s Estate:

she is an owner of this property in the same way any other individual can be the owner of his or her protperty, s two conditions are specified .

1. she cannot ordinarily alienate the corpus, and
2. on her death, it devolves upon the next heir of the last full owner

Her powers of disposal over the property are limited and it is these limitations which go to define the nature of her property/estate. these limitations are not imposed for the benefit of the revesioner. even when there are no reversion, the estate continues to be a limited estate.

The kinds of Stridhan in Schools of Hindu Law:

Dayabhaga

According to Dayabhaga, there are two kinds of Stridhan:

1. Yautaka: Yautaka means all gifts given to the bride during the marriage ceremonies while she and her husband are sitting together.
2. Ayautaka: All the gifts other than Yautaka fall in this category. It includes the gifts and bequests made by the father and other relations before the marriage. Also, the gifts and bequests made to a woman by relations other than the father after the marriage.

Mitakshara

According to Mitakshara, the property is divided into two categories on the basis of the women’s power of disposal over it.

1. Saudayika Stridhan: The property obtained by a married or unmarried girl, from the husband, or parents, at the husband’s or father’s place, is called Saudayika. The property under Saudayika is at the woman’s disposal and her husband does not have any control over it. Thus, she may spend, sell or give it away at her own pleasure.
2. Non-Sauyadika Stridhan: The remaining kinds of Stridhan fall under this category. A woman does not have the power to dispose of this Stridhan property without the husband’s consent.

Factors of Stridhan

The following factors determine whether a property is Stridhan or not:

1. The status of the woman at the time of acquisition of property, i.e. whether she was unmarried, married, or a widow;
2. The source from which the property was acquired; and
3. The school of Hindu law to which the woman belonged.

Properties Under Stridhan

1. Gift and bequest from relations:

1. This is the head of Stridhan.
2. The gifts received during maidenhood, coverture or widowhood, by her parents and their relations, or by the husband or his relations.
3. Such gifts are offered by will or inter-vivos.
4. However, The School of Dayabhaga rejects the husband’s gift of immovable property as Stridhan.

2. Gifts and bequest from strangers:

1. The gifts are given by the strangers (with inter vivos or the will) other than relations constitutes Stridhan.
2. The gift received from strangers was under the control of her husband during her husband’s lifetime.
3. On the death of her husband, they became Stridhan.

3. Property acquired by self-exertion and mechanical arts: By her own self-exertion, and acquired property through labor jobs, employment, singing, dancing, etc., or by any other mechanical art is Stridhan.

4. Property purchased with Stridhan: Any property purchased with Stridhan, or with the savings of Stridhan as well as accumulations and revenue from Stridhan, constitutes Stridhan.

5. Property acquired by compromised:

1. Under Hindu law, if a woman who obtains property under a compromise will take it as a limited state.
2. If she gives up her rights to Stridhan of property received under a compromise it would still be Stridhan.
3. If a woman obtains a property under a family agreement, whether that property is Stridhan or not will depend upon the terms of the arrangement.

6. Property obtained by adverse possession: any property that a woman acquires by adverse possession at any phase of her life is Stridhan.

7. Property obtained in lieu of maintenance:

1. The payments made to a woman in a lump sum or periodically for her maintenance, including arrears of such maintenance is Stridhan.
2. all movable and immovable properties transferred to her are still Stridhan by means of an absolute gift in lieu of maintenance.

8. Property obtained by inheritance: A Hindu female can inherit property from a male or a female, she may inherit it from her parent’s side or her husband’s side.

9. Share obtained on a partition:

1. Section 14 of the Hindu Succession Act,1956, states the share obtained on a partition is considered as Stridhan.
2. Any property received on the partition after the commencement of the Act is her absolute property.
3. And, any property she gets on the partition before the commencement of the Act will also be her property, However, only if she possesses it at the time of commencement of the Act.

Section 14 has abolished women’s estate by converting it into stridhan and woman’s estate and has converted existing woman’s estates into full estates. It has introduced fundamental changes in the traditional Hindu law of property of woman. The objects of this section are:
• To remove all disability of Hindu woman to acquire and deal with property, that is, all the property that she acquires will be her absolute property.
• To convert existing woman’s estate into full estate.

RIGHTS OF WOMEN OVER HER STRIDHAN OR ESTATE

The bride enjoys absolute, complete power and ownership over her entire Streedhan earned during her marriage encompassing both movable and immovable property. She also has the power to dispose of, alienate or give away as per her own discretion during her entire life and thereafter. Her husband and the other family members including the Karta have no control over the Streedhan. In the case of Ashok Laxman Kale vs Ujwala Ashok Kale^[6], the court noted that it is usually practical and advisable that any girl who is particularly educated today must maintain a list of her Streedhan and should also become capable to look after her own Streedhan in terms of safety and security such as opening a bank locker in their own names for the purpose of storing jewellery and money instruments, property, etc., or keeping it under their lock and key.

Some of the precautionary measures to keep a track on the Stridhan could include:

• Maintaining a note of all the gifts and assets received from family, husband’s family, friends, and other relatives before, during and after the marriage.
• Maintaining proof of all the gifts and assets such as digital evidence in the form of wedding pictures, keeping the bills and envelopes of the gifts etc.
• Maintaining a separate salary account in her name for keeping the salary.
• Maintaining a record of the bank accounts and investments after investing her Stridhan.
•  Ensuring the status and title of the properties granted or acquired from her Stridhan must be on her behalf and must be transparent. The investment made from the assets of the stridhan must be in her name.

Power of women over Stridhan

1. Power of Management: she alone is entitled to the possession of the estate and its entire income, and if she saves the income, the savings will also be her Stridhan. The Karta is merely a co-owner of the joint family, there being other coparceners, but she is the sole owner. She alone is entitled to the possession of the entire estate and its income. Her power of spending the income is absolute. She need not save and if she saves, it will be her stridhan. She alone can sue on behalf of the estate and she alone can be sued in respect of it.Sitaji v. Bijendra AIR 1964 SC 601. Any alienation made by her proper or improper is valid and binding so long as she lives. She continues to be its owner until the forfeiture of estate by her re-marriage, adoption, death or surrende

2. Power of Alienation:

She has limited powers of alienation i.e. she can alienate property only in exceptional cases. She can alienate the property for:

1. A legal necessity, i.e., for her own need and for the need of the dependents of the last full owner,
2. for the benefit of the estate, and
3. for the discharge of indispensable religious duties such as the marriage of daughters, funeral rites of her husband, etc.

Under the first two heads her powers are more or less the same as that of the Karta. Restrictions on her powers of alienation are an incident of the estate and not for the benefit of the reversioners.Jaisri v. Rajdewan (1962) SCJ 578. As to the power of alienation under the third head, a distinction is made between the indispensable duties for which the entire property could be alienated, and the pious and charitable purposes for which only small portion of property can be alienated. She can make alienation for religious acts, which are not essential or obligatory but are still pious observances which conduce to the bliss of
her deceased husbands soul. Smt. Kamala Devi v. Mukund Ram AIR 1955 SC 481

3. Surrender:

She is empowered to renounce the estate in favor of the closest reversioner. It means that she can voluntarily accelerate the estate of the reversioner by giving away her own estate.

Three conditions must be satisfied:

1. The first one is that it must be of the entire estate, though she may retain a small portion of her maintenance.
2. The second condition is that the estate must be in favor of the nearest reversioner either male or female.
3. The third condition is that the surrender must be bonafide and not a device of dividing the estate with the reversioners.

For a valid surrender, the first condition is that it must be of the entire estate Natvarlal Punjabhai v. Dahubhai Manubhai AIR 1954 SC 61, though she may retain a small portion of her maintenance Chinnamarappa Goundar v. Narayammal AIR 1906 Mad 169. The second condition is that it must be in favour of the nearest reversioner or reversioners, in case there are more than one of the same category. Surrender can be made in favour of female reversioners also. The third condition is that the
surrender must be bonafide and not a device of dividing the estate with the reversioners.Bhagwant Koer v. Dhanukdhari Prasad Singh AIR 1919 PC 75

4. Reversioners:

1. If the female owner dies, the estate goes back to the heir or the heirs of the last owner as if the latter died when the limited estate ceased.
2. Such heirs may be male or female are known as reversioners.
3. The property of the female is passed on to the reversioners when her estate comes to an end on her death, but it can also come to an end even during her lifetime if she decides to surrender.

5. Right of Reversioners:

1. The reversioners have a right to prevent the female owner from making wasteful use of the property or improper alienation.
2. They can sue the woman holder for an injunction to restrain waste.
3. They are in the capacity of a representative, they can sue for a declaration that alienation made by the widow is null and void and hence will not be binding on them after her death.
4. However, by such a declaration the property does not go back to the widow nor does it go to the reversioners.

Application under allied laws :

A woman’s right to her Streedhan is protected under law. S. 14 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 R/w S. 27 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 , “even if it is placed in the custody of her husband or her in-laws, they would be deemed to be trustees and bound to return the same if and when demanded by her”.
Sec. 12 of the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 provides for women right to her Streedhan in cases where she is a victim of domestic violence. The provisions of this law can be easily invoked for recovery of Streedhan.The magistrate may direct the respondent to return to the possession of the aggrieved person her Streedhan or any other property or valuable security to which she is entitled.
Again u/s 18(ii) of the Domestic Violence Act the law says that a woman is entitled to receive the possession of the Streedhan, jewellery, clothes and other necessary items. The term ‘economic abuse’ has also been provided under the Act.

Case laws:

• In Sukhram v. Gauri Shankar [1968] 1 SCR 476 it was held that the widow was the full owner of joint Hindu family property as she became entitled to the interest her husband had under the Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act. The Court held that although a male was subject to restrictions on his interest in common Hindu family property, the widow, by virtue of the Act, was not subject to such restrictions.

• In the case of Bai Vijia v. Thakorbhai Chelabhai, AIR 1979 SC 993 the court observed that there must be two conditions for the applicability of the sub-section of section 14, namely,

(I ) The female Hindu concerned must be in possession of the property;

(ii) Such property must be owned by her as a limited owner

In the case of Ramappa v. Chandangouda 1960 Mys 260, one of the widows of Hanamgouda sold the property of her husband to the first defendant. She was remarried in 1948. The plaintiff’s reversioner then filed a claim for restitution of ownership. It was rejected by the Court of Justice, but it was decreed by the first appellate court, which noted a legal necessity.

Conclusion:

The Hindu Succession Act’s enactment represents an important step in enhancing Hindu women’s property rights. This Act grants women several rights that they have been denied for many years. This is also a significant development for the defence of women’s rights because it now recognises a woman’s right to hold property and assets on her own. Historically, a woman’s ability to dispose of her Saudayika property was always constrained, while her husband retained control over the disposition of any non-Saudayika property. However, all of those limitations set by the old rules have been eliminated by The Hindu Succession Act, 1956.