Legal Reference Library

A hiba of an undivided share in property which is capable of division is invalid. Exceptions to the rule are: where the gift is made by one co-heir to the other; where the gift is of share in a zamindari or taluka; where gift is of a share in freehold property in a large commercial town, and where gift is of share in a land company. While gift of immovable property is not complete unless the donor parts with the possession and donee enters into possession but if the property is in occupation of tenants, gift can be completed by delivery of title deed or by request to tenants to attorn to the donee or by mutation. Gift of property which is capable of division is irregular but can be perfected and rendered valid by subsequent partition or delivery. [Khursida Begum v. Mohd. Farooq, (2016) 4 SCC 549]

A woman has inalienable rights over stridhan and she can claim it even after separation from her husband, the Supreme Court has ruled, saying that denying it would amount to domestic violence making the husband and in-laws liable to face criminal prosecution. As per Hindu law, stridhan is whatever a women receives during her lifetime including all movable, immovable property, gifts etc received prior to marriage, at the time of marriage and during child birth. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C Pant quashed the order of a trial court and Tripura High Court which had held that a woman cannot claim her stridhan after separation from her husband and criminal proceedings cannot be initiated against husband and in-laws for not handing over the properties. It pulled up the courts for dismissing the plea of a woman on the ground that she lost the right over stridhan after judicial separation with husband. The court said that the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act...