Read Time: 07 minutes
The court was dealing with pleas moved by two sisters who sought realisation of Rs.45,92,600 towards their marriage expenses from their father.
The Kerala High Court recently ruled that the right of an unmarried daughter to get reasonable expenses concerning her marriage from her father cannot have a religious shade.
The bench of Justice Anil K Narendran and Justice PG Ajithkumar said, "It is a right of every unmarried daughter irrespective of her religion. There cannot be a discriminatory exclusion from claiming such a right based on one’s religion".
The court observed so while dealing with the pleas moved by two Christian sisters who sought realisation of Rs.45,92,600 towards their marriage expenses from their father.
A Hindu unmarried daughter can seek reasonable expenses of and incidental to her marriage from her father under Section 3(b) of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956. Also, in 2011, a division bench of the high court, while dealing with a case involving Muslim parties (titled Ismayil v. Fathima and another) declared that not only a Muslim father, every father irrespective of religion has an obligation to pay expenses in relation to the marriage of his daughter.
However, in the present case, the parties were Christian by religion.
The division bench opined that there cannot be a discriminatory exclusion from claiming such a right based on one’s religion.
"The right of an unmarried daughter to get marriage expenses from his father is now a legal right. By taking an analogy from the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act that right, irrespective of religion can be enforced against the profits from the immovable property of the father," said the court.
Accordingly, court held that in the present case also the father of the petitioners had an obligation to meet the reasonable expenses in connection to their marriage.
The petitioner Christian sisters, aged 26 years and 21 years, had filed a suit before the family court seeking realisation of Rs.45,92,600 towards their marriage expenses from their father. The mother and father of the girls had separated and the girls were living with their mother.
The girls had also made a plea for the creation of a charge for the amount claimed towards their marriage expenses over a property upon which their father had built a house and was residing there.
The girls had alleged that their father had bought the said property with the money that was collected by selling their mother's jewelry and by taking financial help from her and her side of the family.
However, the father had opposed the girls' claims. He had argued that the said property and the house belonged to him only and that he had already taken care of all the educational expenses of the two girls.
The family court had held the girls entitled to minimum required expenses for the marriage amounting to Rs 7,50,000. However, it had refused to grant an order of injunction against the father regarding the disputed property, as was sought by the girls.
On the other hand, the high court, while holding the petitioners entitled to claim a charge on the immovable property of their father, also raised the amount for marriage expenses to be paid by the petitioners' father from Rs 7.5 lacs to Rs 15 lacs.
Case Title: XXX v YYY
Please Login or Register
