Family court - claim for recovery of money and gold ornaments - legal evaluation

Burden of proof in a petition claiming return of gold ornaments- once the marriage is over and bride has come to the house of in-laws,  there is a possibility of ornaments being entrusted to the elders as trustees for keeping the articles during the subsistence of marriage. There is a duty cast on the husband to disprove this fact and also to prove the fact that it was taken by the wife at the time she left the house. 2017 1 KHC 620

There cannot be a constructive or presumptive entrustment without actual physical delivery of the ornaments to the parents and the husband. Merely on the evidence that bride had worn gold ornaments at the time of marriage, it cannot be held that the ornaments which were worn at the time of marriage were interested to the father and mother of bridegroom.

Dowry prohibition act - when dowry amount for articles of married women placed in the custody of her husband or in laws they would be deemed to be trustees of the same. The person receiving dowry articles or the person who has dominion over the same as per section 6 of the dowry prohibition act is bound to return the same within 3 months after the date of marriage to the women in connection with whose marriage it is given. 2016 KHC 6042

Ornaments placed in the locker in the name of wife. Later the husband obtained the gold ornaments and he mesoproprated the same. Keeping the ornaments of the wife in a locker in her own name cannot amount to the entrustment of the same to the husband. The finding of the family court that there is lack of evidence to prove the entrustment of gold ornaments to the husband is there for not liable to be interfered with- held the High Court of Kerala.

2023 KHC Online 99

Mat Appeal 13/2016 Judgment dated 7.2.2023 

Binitha V Hareendran