KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Monday held that courts deciding matrimonial disputes cannot presume that a bride entrusted her gold ornaments or money to her husband or in-laws merely on the basis of prevailing social customs or past practices, ruling that such findings must be supported by evidence.
A division bench of Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Preeta A K said claims for the return of gold or money brought by a wife to her matrimonial home must rest on proved facts – oral, documentary or circumstantial – from which entrustment and subsequent misappropriation can reasonably be inferred. Only after such evidence is established does the burden shift to the husband or his relatives to prove that the gold or money was either returned or utilised for the wife’s benefit.
The observations came while partly allowing an appeal filed by a husband and his father against an order by Muvattupuzha family court directing them to return Rs 5 lakh, 80 sovereigns of gold ornaments and Rs 6.89 lakh towards marriage and engagement expenses to the wife.
The wife alleged that her father had paid Rs 5 lakh to her father-in-law at the time of engagement towards marriage expenses and that she wore 90 sovereigns of gold ornaments at the time of marriage. She claimed that her husband took 60 sovereigns soon after the marriage on the pretext of keeping them safely in a bank locker and later failed to return them. She also alleged harassment for additional dowry. The husband denied demanding or receiving Rs 5 lakh and disputed both the quantity of gold and its entrustment.
However, the bench found there was no evidence to establish entrustment of the entire quantity of gold claimed by the wife. The court therefore reduced the wife’s entitlement from 80 sovereigns to 30 sovereigns of gold, or its market value at the time of payment.
Partly allowing the appeal, the HC directed the husband and his father to return `5 lakh with 6% from the date of filing of the original petition and 30 sovereigns of gold, or its market value at the time of payment.
