New Delhi: The Gujarat high court on Saturday ordered the immediate transfer of a deceased man’s properties to his daughter, saying her right to property needed to be safeguarded as extended family members were opposed to her decision to marry her boyfriend.
According to the Times of India, the court said the woman’s right on the property “should be safeguarded, otherwise, her constitutional right to make the choice of her life partner alone may not give her a fulfilling and quality life”. It asked the local police and legal service authority to undertake the process of transferring two houses, a shop, and an agriculture field into the woman’s name.
The case pertains to a 24-year-old woman from the Pranjtij taluka of Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district. The woman’s father had died in December 2021, while her mother had passed away a few years ago.
After her father’s death, extended family members tried to force her to marry someone they chose. But, according to the Times of India, the woman instead married her boyfriend, a resident of the same village, in February.
Angered by this decision, the woman’s paternal uncle attacked her husband and father-in-law and kidnapped her. “Her husband was forced to approach the HC by filing a habeas corpus petition through advocate Bhunesh Rupera seeking custody of his wife,” according to TOI‘s report.
The woman was produced in court on Wednesday, when she said that extended family members had “started taking possession of her father’s properties”. The bench of Justice Sonia Gokani and Justice Mauna Bhatt said that her rights over properties need to be protected “because her love marriage should not be an excuse to deprive her of a quality life”. They asked the government lawyer to work with the Prantij police station to transfer the properties to the woman. The judges asked the government to ensure that the woman receives physical possession of the properties as early as possible, according to the report.
