Lawfully yours: By Retired Justice K Chandru

I am a 30-year-old woman with a 13-year-old daughter. My husband passed away in February last year due to blood cancer without leaving a will. We have a property in Bhavani, Erode, in my husband’s name. Other than me, my daughter and mother-in-law are the legal heirs to the property. Since ours was a love marriage, my mother-in-law is troubling us with the support of her younger brother. I don’t have any savings left for my daughter’s future. It is the only property we have and I’m jobless now. Is there any possibility of my mother-in-law misusing this property as the one living there till now?

If you feel your mother-in-law will misuse the property, you can send a legal notice seeking for partition of the property. If there is no response, you can file a civil suit in the local sub-court / munsif court for the partition of your share in the property.

I am a 62-year-old homemaker, married for 40 years to a 71-year-old. For the past year, my husband has been having an illegitimate affair with a woman half his age or even less on the ground floor of our family home, while I am living on the first floor. He spends all hard-earned money on unwanted things without even providing for us. I have lodged multiple complaints at various forums but they ask for evidence. My eyes and ears are the only evidence. Through a lawyer, I recently came to know that he has donated a residential plot in Chennai and farmland in Madurai to a trust. I am still his legal wife. He hasn’t bothered to discuss this with me or our children. I don’t have any other source of income and am depending on my children. How can I and my children get justice from him and get our due share of his property? 

You can seek judicial separation on the ground of his amorous activities and also claim maintenance for you or else seek for divorce and claim substantial permanent alimony.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed here are of Justice K Chandru, who is providing guidance and direction based on his rich experience and knowledge of the law. This is not a substitute for legal recourse which must be taken as a follow-up if so recommended in these columns