In Brief
A father in Telangana filed a criminal complaint seeking recovery of ornaments (stridhan/traditional gifts) given to his daughter at her 1999 marriage, without the daughter's authorization. The daughter had divorced in 2016 via a Separation Agreement settling all property issues, and remarried in 2018. The Supreme Court held that stridhan is the absolute property of the woman alone; the father has no legal right to recover it without explicit power of attorney from his daughter. The criminal complaint, filed 5 years post-divorce with unexplained delay and without the daughter's authorization, was an abuse of process. The Court found no cognizable offence under Section 406 IPC or Section 6 of the Dowry Prohibition Act and quashed the proceedings.
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