Bridal gifts fall within the ambit of personal property and belongings of a wife

8. Bridal gifts fall within the ambit of personal property and belongings of a wife i.e. Item No.9 of the Schedule in terms of Section 5 of the Family Courts Act, 1964 which confers exclusive jurisdiction upon the Family Court to hear the claim of such matters. The term “personal property and belongings of a wife” has already been explicated by this Court in the case titled Muhammad Akram v. Hajra Bibi (PLD 2007 Lah. 515) and maintained by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of Pakistan in the case titled Syed Mukhtar Hussain Shah v. Mst. Saba Imtiaz and others (PLD 2011 SC 260). Relevant extract from the case of Muhammad Akram (supra) reads below:-

 “Such personal property or belonging referred to in Entry No.9, in my considered view, is a residuary provision, which enables the wife to recover through the process of the Family Courts Act, 1964, whatever property she has acquired during the subsistence of the marriage, which is not the part of her dowry, through her own independent means or even through the means provided by her husband, such as her clothes, ornaments and items of personal use and nature, this may also include anything which has been gifted to the wife by the husband or any of his or her relatives or the friends; such property and belonging may be the one acquired by the wife out of the money given to her by the husband, her saving from household allowance, or pocket money, from the money provided by her parents and relatives.”

Part of Judgment : 

LAHORE HIGH COURT MULTAN BENCH, MULTAN 

WP- Family Law
29827-14

2014 LHC 7218