A bench of the Kerala High Court has held that even after the dissolution of the marriage, the husband will be deemed to hold in trust the properties entrusted with him by the wife before marriage in the form of dowry. This means that Section 10 of the Limitation Act 1963, which exempts the application of limitation period to suit against trusts and trustees, will continue to apply to such property even after the dissolution of the marriage.
Therefore, limitation period will not start running even after the dissolution of marriage with respect to the claim for return of property entrusted with husband or in-laws.
The issue was referred to the full bench by a division bench which doubted the correctness of the view in Bindu K.P. v. Surendran C.K(2018) wherein it was held that the claim of the wife or ex-wife for a dowry is not barred by any length of time.
Case -
Title : Sheela KK vs N G Suresh (MA No.358/209)
Bench : Justices A M Shaffique, Sunil Thomas and P Gopinath