Delhi High court has recently said in a judgment that warring spouses in a dispute cannot drag other family members into the family court.
It is about time that such a decision was delivered since a cottage industry of clueless lawyers is taking advantage of gullible people by promising them what is not possible under law. Read the news below (emphasis added is mine):
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_don-t-go-to-family-courts-for-in-laws-property-hc_1338107
Except for warring spouses, no relative can be dragged to a family court (FC) and the forum wonât entertain claims on property owned by in-laws.
In a significant judgment on Thursday, the Delhi high court explained the role and powers of FCs. It also made clear whether a daughter-in-law [in one case] has rights over a property owned by her widowed mother-in-law.
The court ruled that a partition suit filed in a civil court by Manita Khurana against her mother-in-law Indra Khurana canât be transferred to the FC. Manita is fighting to get a divorce from her husband in a Delhi family court.
A bench of justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw disposed Manitaâs appeal against the civil courtâs order refusing to transfer the property case to FC and said she canât use the family court to get relief. Indra had said that the house doesnât belong to her son as she is the owner.
So, not only can his wife not sue Indra for the property, she cannot take the case to a family court. Manitaâs counsel, however, disputed Indraâs claim. He said the daughter-in-law can claim rights to the house on the basis of a marriage. If rights come from being in a marriage, then the FC should have exclusive jurisdiction.
Though the word âfamilyâ hasnât been defined, a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are family and the FC alone should have exclusive jurisdiction, Manitaâs counsel said.
To this, justice Endlaw recalled a Bombay high court judgment on the issue. Two years ago, the court (Rakhi vs Jayendra) held that the Family Courts Act is a special legislation that creates a forum for effective enforcement of existing rights of spouses. It canât be construed to âbring within its jurisdiction what was not intendedâ.
In the Bombay HCcase, a father-in-law had filed a suit restraining his daughter-in-law from entering his house. The court said the issue was beyond the ambit of FC.
âThe claim of a third party to a marriage, even if she is the mother of a spouse, cannot be adjudicated before the family court,â justice Endlaw said.
The HC said the FCA doesnât show that the âlegislature thought about depriving the owner of the property just because the claimant was her daughter-in-lawâ. âThe interpretation does not permit FCs to have jurisdiction over the suit,â the court said.
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