Wife entitled to equal share to the properties bought by husband: Madras High Court

In an important observation, Madras High Court stated that a homemaker has equal rights on all the properties the husband has bought. The bench headed by Justice Krishnan Ramasamy stated that the acquisition of assets is made by joint contributions of both spouses, directly or indirectly for the welfare of the family, and therefore both are entitled to an equal share. 

The court also said that if the wife leaves her salaried job for her husband and children, she can land in some tough financial condition, and there would be nothing left that she could call her own. In a case where a couple married in 1965 broke off their marriage in 2016, the court ruled the wife was half the owner of the properties.

The court also cleared that even if the properties were bought by the husband or wife with their own money, it would be considered joint ownership. The husband would not be able to earn all the money without his wife's help in taking care of the household and his family.

The injunction suit was filed by Kannaian Naidu in 2002, where he contested that his wife was after his properties, which he had bought from the money he worked hard for overseas. He had also claimed that his wife was taking help of a man to usurp Naidu’s properties.

The wife had argued that she had equal rights to the property, as she had taken care of the family and had given up her employment for the cause. She claimed that she had sold her jewellery off to help her husband go overseas.

Naidu died when the case was still on, and his sons claimed the property after his death as his legal heirs. The wife had appealed against it in the high court, finally getting equal rights to the property.

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