WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN MATRIMONIAL PROPERTY

Abstract

The laws of matrimonial property of women in India are a complex combination of ideas of two hundred years of patriarchal value, the dynamism of legislation, and the challenges inflicted by the social society. This episode requires taking a close look at both the law rules and judicial rulings that establish the rights of women to assets gained in the course of marriage. Women on traditional Indian culture have also had a difficulty in ownership of properties as there are high patriarchal societies and the responsibility of leadership and ownership of property most of the time rests on the men. A vast majority of humanity has constructed this belief in the form of laws, customs and rituals and as a result, men enjoy preferential usual of family resources. This has been witnessed in the fact that households of males are dominant in India. This made the income of women to largely rely on marital status. They were restrained to hold, give or assume control over property thus more prone in their marriages. Traditional social expectations which tend to support the husband and interests in many cases continue to face the realization of women matrimonial property rights in spite of legal changes that have been introduced to ensure gender equality is practiced. This chapter explores the cumbersome aspects of matrimonial property rights as conferred on women by the Indian legislation, their evolution over the years, present law, and sociological elements that surround their application into practice. It will also investigate the effect of judicial activism in the particularly the interpretations of these rights along with the broadenings as well as the perennial struggles of the resistance toward and the challenges on the following divisions of property in the society.