Chennai, June 24 (Bureau) Noting that wife and husband are two wheels of a family cart, the Madras High Court, in a significant observation, has held that wife was entitled for an equal share in properties purchased by her husband as he could not have earned it without her support while looking after the family. Delivering the verdict while disposing a 2016 second appeal preferred by a person against his estranged wife whom he had married in 1965, Mr Justice Krishnan Ramasamy observed that a homemaker performs a multi-dexterous job round-the-clock and without any holiday. “She is expected to have managerial skills, culinary penchant and a knowledge of accounts and economics too. A woman taking care of a home also performs the job of a home doctor by providing basic medical support to family members.
Therefore, her contributions cannot be discounted as valueless, the Judge observed. A homemaker would be entitled to an equal share in the properties purchased by her husband with his earnings, as he could not have earned the money without his wife’s support in looking after the family, he said. “The property may have been purchased either in the name of the husband or wife, nevertheless, it must be considered to have been purchased with money saved by their joint efforts,” he added. “When the husband and wife are treated as two wheels of a family cart, then the contribution made either by the husband by earning or the wife by serving and looking after the family and children, would be for the welfare of the family and both are equally entitled to whatever they earned by their joint effort”, the Judge noted. The proper presumption is that the beneficial interest belongs to them jointly, Mr Justice Krishnan Ramasamy observed.