In-Laws Have Your Gold? Know If They Are Within Their Rights And Legal Steps To Get It Back After Divorce

In many Indian marriages, gold and jewellery form a significant part of what a woman receives at the time of her wedding. But when a marriage ends in separation or divorce, what happens to this gold? Do the in-laws have a right to keep it? Can a woman reclaim it if it’s been withheld?

We spoke to Rytim Vohra Ahuja, Senior Associate at Karanjawala & Co., to understand what the law says and the legal remedies women can seek.

How To Take Gold Jewellery Back From In Laws?

Under Hindu law, gold and other valuables given to a woman at or around the time of her marriage are considered stridhan. This includes gifts received from both her family and her in-laws, before, during, or even after marriage.

“Stridhan is the property that a woman receives at the time of her marriage, before or after it, during the lifetime of her husband, or even after his death, and over which she alone has ownership rights,” explains Ahuja, citing the Supreme Court’s 1985 ruling in Pratibha Rani v. Suraj Kumar.

Section 14(1) of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, also supports this, stating that any property possessed by a Hindu woman is her absolute property, not something she shares or owes to her husband or his family. This position was recently reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in Maya Gopinathan v. Anoop S.B. & Anr. (2024), which upheld that stridhan remains the woman’s legal property, regardless of the marital outcome.

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Personal Laws To Protect Women’s Property Rights

While the term stridhan is rooted in Hindu personal law, women from other communities have similar rights when it comes to gifts and jewellery:

1. Under Muslim law, the Mehr (dower) is the woman’s absolute property.

2. In Christian and Parsi law, gifts and valuables given to the woman belong solely to her and cannot be claimed by the husband or his family.

How Women Can Protect Their Jewellery From In Laws After Divorce

Legal rights aside, it's equally important for women to take preventive steps to safeguard their jewellery, especially in strained or abusive marital situations. According to Ahuja, women should:

• Keep the jewellery in their own possession, preferably in a locker that only they can access.
• Store purchase receipts of the gold or jewellery carefully.
• Retain photographs or videos of themselves wearing the jewellery as visual proof of ownership.

These precautions can prove valuable, especially during legal proceedings or police investigations.

Can In-Laws Keep Your Gold After Divorce?

If a woman’s jewellery is taken away or not returned by her in-laws after separation or divorce, the woman can fight legally, and there are multiple legal remedies she can turn to:

Criminal Remedies

• Section 498A of the IPC (now Section 85 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, 2023): For cruelty by the husband or his family.
• Section 406 of the IPC (now Section 316 of the BNS, 2023): For criminal breach of trust involving misappropriation of stridhan.

Civil Remedies

• Section 18 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005: A woman can apply to recover her stridhan.
• Section 6 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961: Protects a woman’s right to receive and retain dowry items, including gold and jewellery.
• In case the gold is sold, misplaced, or destroyed, the woman can also file a civil suit seeking recovery of the value of the jewellery and compensation for damages.

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Gold and jewellery given to a woman at the time of marriage, whether from her family or in-laws, legally belong to her. Even after divorce, her right over her stridhan remains intact. The in-laws or husband cannot withhold or sell it without her consent.

If such situations arise, women should know that the law is on their side and they can take both criminal and civil action to reclaim what is rightfully theirs.

Keep reading Herzindagi for more such stories.

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