A division bench of Delhi High Court held that, if you put any property in the joint names of wife and husband, other person, who paid nothing, will also get 50% of that said property.
From Para 29-35,
29. The question for consideration is whether the Respondent is entitled to a 50% share in the proceeds of the property held jointly by the parties. In the Order dated 17.01.2020, the Supreme Court made it clear that this question relating to 50% share of the wife will be taken up for consideration at the time of the MAT Appeal (FC) No. 38 of 2019.
30. Learned counsel for the Respondent had contended that the said proceeds have become part of the Respondent‟s stridhan under Section 14 of the HSA and therefore, she has the exclusive ownership over the same. However, a property jointly purchased at the time of marriage cannot be treated as the stridhan of the woman, as stridhan is confined to those properties which are gifted to her voluntarily by her parents, relatives, husband, or in-laws, either before or after the marriage, and which are intended for her exclusive ownership and enjoyment. A jointly acquired property, purchased in the name of both spouses, is by its very nature a joint asset and cannot fall within the ambit of stridhan, since it is not a gift exclusively made to the wife but rather an acquisition contributed to and held by both parties.
31. Normally, when a husband and wife acquire property during the subsistence of marriage, the presumption in law is that such acquisition is made from common family funds and that both spouses have contributed equally, irrespective of whether one of them is earning or not. In the present case, the subject property was purchased in the joint names of the husband and wife, although it is an admitted position that the entire consideration, including the payment of EMIs, was borne solely by the Appellant/Husband. It is further a matter of record that the title of the subject property is held in the names of both spouses as joint owners, and even the account in HSBC Bank, in which the surplus amount was deposited, was maintained in the joint names of the parties.
32. In this regard, a reference may be made to Section 4 of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988 [hereinafter referred to as “Benami Act”], which sets out as follows:-
“4. Prohibition of the right to recover property held benami.—
(1) No suit, claim or action to enforce any right in respect of any property held benami against the person in whose name the property is held or against any other person shall lie by or on behalf of a person claiming to be the real owner of such property.
(2) No defence based on any right in respect of any property held benami, whether against the person in whose name the property is held or against any other person, shall be allowed in any suit, claim or action by or on behalf of a person claiming to be the real owner of such property.”
33. Section 4 creates an absolute bar against the enforcement of rights in respect of property held benami. It stipulates that no person claiming to be the real owner of such property can institute any suit, claim, or action to enforce rights against the benamidar or any other person in whose name the property stands. Equally, it prohibits the raising of any defence in a pending suit, claim, or action on the ground that the property, though standing in the name of another, actually belongs to the real owner. The combined effect of sub-Sections (1) and (2) is that the real owner is entirely disabled from seeking recognition of any right, title, or interest in the benami property, either by way of initiating proceedings or by way of defence.
34. In this backdrop, once the property stands in the joint names of the spouses, the husband cannot be permitted to claim exclusive ownership merely on the ground that he alone provided the purchase consideration. Such a plea would contravene Section 4 of the Benami Act, which imposes an absolute bar against the enforcement of rights in respect of property held benami. The provision clearly stipulates that no person claiming to be the real owner of a property standing in another‟s name can either institute proceedings or raise a defence asserting such ownership. Thus, the combined effect of the presumption of equal ownership between spouses and the statutory prohibition under Section 4 is that the Appellant is prevented from contending that the amount from the sale of the joint property belongs to him alone.
35. Therefore, the Respondent is entitled to a 50% share in the proceeds of the property held jointly by the parties, and the money must be released to her.
Citations: [2025:DHC:8356-DB]
Other Sources:
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/30016714/
https://www.casemine.com/judgement/in/68d2fb6b3a3e913fa6f579c2
https://transfer-pricing.in/t/husband-cannot-claim-exclusive-ownership-of-a-property-jointly-held-by-both-the-spouses-merely-on-the-ground-that-he-alone-paid-the-emis/148
Index of
