On Saturday, June 24, Madras High Court said that a woman who is a homemaker is entitled to an equal share of her husband’s property. The court said that a homemaker woman’s contribution in acquiring family assets cannot be deemed valueless as she performs the household chores round-the-clock.
According to Justice Krishnan Ramasamy, a husband could not have done his job and earned money without his wife’s assistance in looking after his family.
Justice Krishnan Ramasamy noted that, while there was no legislation in place at this point, the court could surely recognise the wife’s contribution. The Court went on to say that the law does not preclude a Judge from recognising the contributions.
“The contributions which wives make towards acquisition of the family assets by performing their domestic chores, thereby releasing their husbands for gainful employment, would be a factor which this Court would take into account while deciding the right in the properties the either the title stands in the name of the husband or wife and certainly, the spouse who looks after the home and cares for family for decades, entitled to share in the property,” Justice Ramasamy said.
“No law prevents the Judges from recognizing the contributions made by a wife facilitating her husband to purchase the property. In my view, if assets are acquired through the joint contribution (direct or indirect) of both spouses for the welfare of the family, both are entitled to an equal share.”
According to the judge’s order, a woman homemaker performs multiple tasks similar to a manager with managerial skills, such as planning, organising, budgeting, running errands, and so on. She also prepares food, designs menus, and manages kitchen inventory like a chef.
She also looks after the health of the family members, acting as a home doctor by taking precautions and administering homemade medicine. The judge also mentioned that a homemaker woman is a home economist.
Moreover, Justice Ramasamy added that a wife’s skills enable her to make her home feel like a comfortable environment. It’s a 24-hour job with no holidays, which cannot be less than an earning husband’s job of eight hours.
While hearing a 2016 case filed by an estranged husband and wife who married in 1965, the court determined that the wife was entitled to half of the assets acquired by the husband. The husband who died, worked in the Middle East between 1983 and 1994. He had accused his wife of usurping property and of having an extramarital affair.
Meanwhile, the woman claimed that she had sold her ancestral properties and used the proceeds to fund her husband’s foreign trip and that she had also earned money by tailoring and giving tuition classes, from which she had purchased some of the suit properties. Following her husband’s death, her children filed a case in 2016 in which the court ruled that homemakers are entitled to an equal share of the property.
