17BAL068 Family PPT (Abdul Kadir V Salima)
17BAL068 Family PPT (Abdul Kadir V Salima)
17BAL068 Family PPT (Abdul Kadir V Salima)
The court of first instance was not convinced with the first and third counter claim of the
defendants, but found some legal value in the second counter claim i.e. non-payment of
dower.
SIMILARITIES WITH A
CONTRACT
Validity depends on the proposal and acceptance.
No limit as to the amount of dower has been imposed, and it may
either be prompt, that is immediately payable upon demand, or
deferred, that is payable upon the dissolution of marriage, whether by
death or divorce. the dower may also be partly prompt and partly
deferred; but when at the time of the marriage ceremony no
specification in this respect is made, the whole dower is presumed to be
prompt and due on demand
HEDAYA
“The payment of dower is enjoined by the law merely as a token
of respect for its object (the woman), wherefore the mention of it
is not absolutely essential to the validity of a marriage; and, for the
same reason, a marriage is also valid, although the man were to
engage in the contract on the special condition that there should be
no dower."
No limit as to the amount of dower has been imposed, and it
may either be prompt, that is immediately payable upon demand,
or deferred, that is payable upon the dissolution of marriage,
whether by death or divorce
The dower may also be partly prompt and partly deferred; but
when at the time of the marriage ceremony no specification in
this respect is made, the whole dower is presumed to be prompt
and due on demand
WHEN DOWER BECOMES
PAYABLE
“The nature of the eligible dower to be that of a debt
payable generally on demand after the date of the contract,
which forms the basis of the obligations, and payable at any
period during the life of the husband, on which that demand
shall be actually made, and therefore until the demand be
actually made and refused, the ground of an action at law
cannot properly be said to have arisen."
HEDAYA: AS CONTENDED BY THE
PLEADER
"It is the wife's right that she may deny herself to her husband until she
receive the dower, and she may prevent him from taking her away (that is,
travelling with her), so that her right in the return may be fixed in the same
manner as that of the husband in the object of the return and become like
sale. And it is not for the husband that he may prevent her from travelling or
going out of his house and visiting her friends until he has paid the whole
eligible dower, because the right of restraint is for securing fulfilment (of his
right) to the rightful person, and he has not the right to securing fulfilment
before rendering fulfilment (himself); and if the whole dower is deferred, it
is not for her to deny herself because of her having dropped her right by
deferring it, as in sale.”
COURT
It is the wife's right to prevent the husband from connubial
intercourse, and that which is implied therein and from
journeying with her, even though after connubial intercourse and
retirement to which she has consented, because all connubial
intercourse has been contracted with her, and the rendering of
some does not imperatively require the rendering of the rest. This
right is for the purpose of obtaining what has been stated as
prompt dower, whether wholly or partly.
In a passage from Hedaya, husband is called "the rightful person," and the
impediment to the enforcement of his right of cohabitation with his wife is
stated to be the non-payment of her prompt dower, a rule which, having
been borrowed from the Muhammadan law of sale, is based simply upon
the analogy of the lien which the vendor possesses upon the goods for
payment of the price before delivery.
The strongest possible analogy to the ordinary rule of the law of sale,
which has been best stated in Section 95 of the Indian Contract Act (IX of
1872), namely, that "unless a contrary intention appears by the contract, a
seller has a lien on sold goods as long as they remain in his possession and
the price or any part of it remains unpaid."
It is apparent that the sole object of the rule which entitles the wife to
resist cohabitation is to enable her to secure payment of her prompt dower.
In the present case, in the first place, it has not been found that the
wife ever demanded her dower before the suit was filed, or that she
declined to cohabit with her husband the plaintiff upon the ground
that her dower had not been paid. She relied upon allegations of
divorce and cruelty, both of which were found by the Court of First
Instance to be untrue, and upon these findings it was held that she
had no defence to the action.
The plaintiff, as already shown, acquired by the very fact of the
marriage the right of cohabitation; he was not bound to pay the
dower before it was demanded, and upon the findings of the first
Court, the first intimation which he had of such demand was the
written defence of his wife the course of this unfortunate litigation.
And upon intimation of such a demand, he actually brought the
money into Court and deposited it for payment to his wife, the
defendant No. 2, as her dower.
THANK YOU.