Dividing,the,Family,Silver

　　Your marriage may have failed but don’t discard the wedding photographs as bad memories. These can be legal evidence of who owns the jewellery that you are wearing in these photographs.
　　Unlike property, where ownership is decided on the basis of who has paid for it, jewellery belongs to the person who uses it, that is, the wife. She just has to produce these pictures in the court to prove that the jewellery is part of her‘streedhan’.
　　Streedhan is assets within a marital household over which only the wife has ownership. This includes everything bought by her or given to her before marriage, at marriage or during the period she is married. Also, it can come from anyone—parents, husband, inlaws, relatives and friends, or husband’s relatives and friends.
　　However, there can be exceptions. Let’s see who will be the rightful owner of jewellery(includes ornaments made of gold, silver, platinum or any other precious metal, stone or any alloy) and valuables such as paintings/artifacts in some common divorcerelated situations.
　　 Gifts Received
　　The definition of gifting is simple. It means transfer of ownership. It does not matter who the gift comes from. It belongs to the person to whom it has been presented. So, if any family jewellery is gifted to the wife, it is streedhan, while a car gifted to the husband at the time of marriage is his.
　　In case of jewellery, apart from a few items such as the husband’s wedding ring or, say, a gold chain given to him, all items are assumed to have been gifted to the wife.
　　Between husband and wife, it is obvious that the jewellery belongs to the wife. But controversy arises when the couple stays in a joint family. In such a case, the husband can claim that the jewellery doesn’t belong to the wife but to, say, the mother-in-law or the sister-in-law.
　　Unlike in immovable property such as a house, one doesn’t need a gift deed to prove ownership.“Usually, oral statements are enough to decide who owns the jewellery. However, in cases where one has to prove ownership in court, it can be done by showing photographs of the person wearing the ornament,” says Anupam Srivastava, partner, The Chambers of Law, a New Delhibased law firm.
　　Other valuables such as a painting or, say, a silver set, received as gifts by the couple together are considered joint property. So, these should be divided equally. “Valuables gifted to the couple at the time of marriage belong to both and can be divided according to Section 27 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1995,”says Anju Tyagi, Associate Professor (Law), National Law University, New Delhi.

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