Court has jurisdiction to pass appropriate order in the matter of conflict regarding ownership of the property.

Husband in H.M.O.P. No.80 of 1994, on the file of the Subordinate Judge’s Court, Trichy, is the revision petitioner herein. The marital relationship between petitioner and respondent has been terminated by a decree of divorce, and the same has become final. Pending the petition for divorce, respondent filed I.A. No.256 of 1996 for return of certain articles which she claimed as her own and she prayed before the court below that necessary direction be given to the husband to return the same. In the affidavit filed by her in support of the application, she said that she was given 25 sovereigns of gold and cash of Rs.10,000 and other household articles and the same were entrusted to her husband, which were given to her as ‘Sridhana’. He was given 16 grams of gold chain on the eve of first Deepavali. She wanted return of all these things and also the cash.

2. Petitioner herein denied the above allegation and he also contested the jurisdiction of the court to pass on order.

3. By the impugned order, after taking evidence, the lower court came to the conclusion that the respondent is entitled to get back all the ornaments and Rs.10,000 which was given to her at the time of marriage. The contention that the court has no jurisdiction was found against. Before this Court, learned counsel for the revision petitioner submitted that the Order of the court below is without jurisdiction and against the provisions of Sec.27 of the Hindu Marriage Act. Learned counsel submitted that unless the respondent herein admits that it is the joint property that belonged to both parties, the court below will not have jurisdiction to dispose of the same. In this case, the respondent herein claimed that 25 sovereigns of ornaments and a gold chain and also a cash of Rs.10,000 belonged to her only and did not belong to both parties jointly. When the sole ownership is claimed by the wife, the Matrimonial Court will have no jurisdiction and the ordinary civil remedy will have to be resorted to for recovering the same.

4. How far the said contention can be accepted is the only question to be decided in this case.

5. Sec.27 of the Hindu Marriage Act reads thus:

“In any proceeding under this Act, the court may make such provisions in the decree as it deems just and proper with respect to any property presented, at or about the time of marriage, which may belong jointly to both the husband and the wife.”

6. Learned counsel for the revision petitioner submitted that there is no reported decision of this Court on this point and the decision of other High Courts is to the effect that when one of the parties to a marriage claims the property as belonging to him or her exclusively, the court will not pass an order under Sec.27 of the Hindu Marriage Act.

7. Learned counsel for the revision petitioner relied on the following decisions: (1) M.D.Krishnan v. M.C. Padma, A.I.R. 1968 Mys.226. Inpara.17 of the judgment, a Division Bench of that High Court held thus:

“...the jurisdiction of the matrimonial court under Sec.27 of the Act is only to make order with respect to property presented at or about the time of marriage and which belong jointly to both the husband and wife. So before an order is made under this section, it must be shown that the property in respect of which a claim is made was presented at or about the time of marriage, the matrimonial court would not get any jurisdiction to make order in respect of the property presented subsequent to the marriage.”

.(2) In Shukla v. Brij Bhushan, A.I.R. 1982 Delhi 223, a learned Judge of that court held that the individual property of a property of a party of a marriage cannot be a subject-matter of disposal under Sec.27 of the Act. In that case, the learned Judge said that Sec.27 of the Hindu Marriage Act is a substantive provision empowering the court in any proceeding under the said Act to make a just and proper order regarding property presented at or about the time of the marriage of the parties and