My in-laws are refusing to return my streedhan. What can I do?

Streedhan is everything given to you before, during or after your marriage, by your parents, your husband, your in-laws or anyone else. Jewellery, cash, gifts, household articles. It is your absolute property. Your husband and in-laws may hold it, but they hold it as custodians, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly confirmed that a woman retains full control over her streedhan even while it is physically in someone else's possession.

Step one is the inventory, not the complaint

Almost every streedhan case turns on proof of what existed. Before anything else, list every item with whatever evidence you have:

• Purchase bills and jeweller's invoices, even old ones
• Wedding photographs and video, which show what was worn and given
• Gift records, bank statements, locker entry records and locker inventories
• Insurance declarations, and any messages or emails discussing the items

Missing receipts are not fatal. Courts accept corroborating evidence, and photographs and locker records do a great deal of work. But an unspecified claim of "my jewellery" is much weaker than a numbered list.

Then a written demand

Send a written demand for return by a mode that gives you proof of dispatch and delivery. This fixes the date of refusal and removes the defence that nobody ever asked.

The routes available to you

• Under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, withholding streedhan is economic abuse. You can seek return of the items, and interim orders, within those proceedings.
• Criminal complaint. Wrongful retention of property entrusted to another can amount to criminal breach of trust, now Section 316 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which replaced Section 406 IPC.
• Civil recovery. A suit for recovery of movables or their value.
• Within the matrimonial case. Streedhan should be listed item by item in any settlement you sign.