Delhi occupies an unusual position in India's legal landscape: proximity to the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court means that legal precedent on women's rights is developed here faster and more consistently than almost anywhere else in the country. Delhi High Court judgments on maintenance, stridhan, domestic violence, and workplace harassment are frequently cited by courts across India. For women navigating these issues in the capital, that concentration of judicial attention is an advantage worth understanding.
This article covers the most significant categories of legal protection available to women in Delhi. It is not an exhaustive treatise — it is intended to give a clear-headed overview so that a woman facing a difficult situation knows what options exist before she decides what to do.
Protection Against Domestic Violence
The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 remains one of the most powerful instruments available to women facing abuse — physical, emotional, economic, or sexual — within a domestic relationship. One aspect of this law that is not widely understood is its breadth: it covers not only wives but any woman in a domestic relationship. Sisters, mothers, daughters, and women in live-in relationships are all within its ambit. The abuser need not be a husband — it can be any male member of the shared household, or even a female relative in certain circumstances.
The relief available under the DV Act is comprehensive. A Protection Order restrains the respondent from committing further acts of violence or harassment. A Residence Order secures the woman's right to remain in the shared household even if she has no ownership rights over it — a provision that courts have enforced firmly when landlords or in-laws attempt to evict women. Maintenance and compensation can be ordered under Sections 20 and 22 respectively. Custody of children can be determined on an interim basis under Section 21.
The application can be filed before any Judicial Magistrate of the First Class. A Protection Officer — a government-appointed official in each district — is available to assist women in filing complaints and can be approached without an advocate. That said, the process moves considerably faster and more effectively with proper legal assistance, particularly where interim relief is needed urgently.
Stridhan: Your Property, Your Right
Stridhan — literally "woman's wealth" — comprises all property that a woman receives as gifts before marriage, at the time of marriage, after marriage, and indeed at any point from any source, including from her own family, her in-laws, and any other person. The Supreme Court has been emphatic: stridhan belongs absolutely and exclusively to the woman. The husband has no right over it, not even a right of use without her consent.
When stridhan — typically jewellery, household items, gifts, and sometimes cash — is retained by the husband or in-laws after separation or during matrimonial proceedings, two remedies are available. The civil remedy is a suit for recovery. The criminal remedy is a complaint under Section 406 BNS (criminal breach of trust), which carries imprisonment of up to three years. In practice, the criminal complaint often prompts a faster response from the in-laws than civil proceedings would. Courts in Delhi regularly issue orders for return of stridhan, and I have seen matters where even the threat of criminal proceedings was sufficient to secure a prompt return.
It is important to document stridhan carefully — photographs taken at the time of the wedding, lists prepared with family witnesses, receipts where available. Women who do this at the time of marriage are in a significantly stronger position if they ever need to claim it back.
Maintenance Rights
A wife is entitled to maintenance from her husband both during matrimonial proceedings and independently of them. Section 144 BNSS (which replaced Section 125 CrPC) allows any woman unable to maintain herself to claim maintenance from her husband. The court considers the husband's income and assets, the standard of living the parties enjoyed during the marriage, the wife's own income if any, and the expenses of children.
Interim maintenance under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act is available during the pendency of matrimonial proceedings before the Family Court, and courts are now awarding this promptly — often within the first few hearings. Delhi High Court has issued guidelines directing Family Courts to decide interim maintenance applications within sixty days of filing. In my experience, the actual timeline is often somewhat longer, but the principle is clear and the courts do take delays in interim maintenance seriously.
One important development from recent Delhi HC judgments: where a husband has deliberately suppressed or understated his income, courts are willing to draw adverse inferences and determine notional income based on lifestyle indicators — the type of property he lives in, vehicles, foreign travel, children's school fees. Women should preserve all evidence of the matrimonial standard of living — bank statements, credit card records, holiday photographs, school fee receipts — because this evidence directly supports the maintenance calculation.
Workplace Harassment: The POSH Act
The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 mandates that every establishment with ten or more employees constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). Sexual harassment under the Act is defined broadly — it includes unwelcome physical contact, sexually coloured remarks, showing pornographic material, demands for sexual favours, and any other conduct of a sexual nature that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.
A complaint must be filed within three months of the last incident of harassment, though the ICC or Local Complaints Committee can extend this by another three months where sufficient cause is shown. Importantly, where an employer has not constituted an ICC, the woman can approach the Local Complaints Committee (LCC) — a district-level body established by the government — which has the same powers as an ICC. This is significant because many small and medium employers still do not have functional ICCs.
The Act also protects against victimisation. If a woman is dismissed, demoted, or otherwise penalised for filing a complaint, this is a separate violation and she can seek compensation and reinstatement. I would encourage any woman who faces workplace harassment to document incidents as they occur — dates, times, the nature of the conduct, witnesses if any — because contemporaneous documentation is far more compelling than recollection months later.
Inheritance Rights
The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005 conferred on daughters the same rights as sons in a Hindu Undivided Family's ancestral property. This was a landmark change: before 2005, daughters lost their coparcenary rights upon marriage. Since the 2005 amendment, a daughter born before or after the amendment has the same right as a son to demand partition, be allotted a share, and deal with her portion of ancestral property.
The Supreme Court in Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020) clarified that the daughter's right exists irrespective of whether the father was alive at the time the amendment came into force. This resolved years of conflicting decisions and is now settled law. If you have been excluded from ancestral property on the ground that you are a daughter, you have a legal remedy — a partition suit before the civil court of competent jurisdiction.
A Final Note
Many women delay taking legal action because of social pressure, fear of family reaction, or simple uncertainty about whether their situation is "serious enough" to involve a lawyer. I want to say plainly: legal rights do not expire because you endure quietly, but evidence does grow stale. Early action preserves options. Early consultation — even just to understand what is possible — costs nothing but time.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For guidance specific to your matter, please consult a qualified advocate.
Advocate Mandeep Kaur
Bar Council of Delhi · Delhi High Court & District Courts