DOWER, KINDS OF DOWER, PROMPT, DEFERRED, MEANING, SCOPE, OBLIGATION OF DOWER, S.10 OF FAMILY LAW ORDINANCE 1961

DOWER UNDER S.10

MEANING AND SCOPE

AN OBLIGATION

KINDS OF DOWER

Where no details about the mode of payment of the dower are specified in the nikahnama or the marriage contract, the entire amount of the dower shall be presumed to be payable on demand.

MEANING AND SCOPE

“Dower or Mahr may be defined to be as some of the money or other property which the wife is entitled to receive from the husband in consideration of marriage.”

Dower is a denomination of property, consideration of “Maal”

Which is paid, fixed or prescribed, or undertaken to be paid to the wife by the husband at the time of marriage.

Dower is that financial gain that a wife is entitled to receive from her husband by virtue of the marriage contract itself whether named or not in the contract of marriage in which case proper dower would become due.

Dower essentially is the right of the wife and not her parents.

ARTICLE 285 OF THE MUHAMMADAN LAW BY D.F.MULLAH

“Mahar or dower is a sum of money or other property which the wife is entitled to receive from the husband in consideration of marriage.

Under Muhammadan law dower is an obligation imposed upon the husband as a mark of respect to the wife. The consideration had been compared to the price in a contract of sale because marriage is a civil contract and sale is a typical contract to which Muhammadan jurists are accustomed to referring by way of analogy.”

AN OBLIGATION ON HUSBAND

Dower is paid by the husband to the wife,

Firstly, to acquire this religious merit and

Secondly, to discharge an obligation or duty towards the wife. 

KINDS OF DOWER  

Dower is either prompt or deferred or part prompt or part deferred.

Prompt dower would be payable on demand while deferred dower payable on dissolution of marriage by death or divorce.

A deferred dower can be changed into a prompt dower.

It can be paid before or after consummation of the marriage in kind or

in the shape of ornaments. Parties can agree that deferred dower would be payable on the happening of certain events like divorce or death.

According to section 10, where no details as to the payment of dower are given the entries amount of dower shall be presumed to be payable on demand.

PROMPT DOWER 

A prompt dower does not become deferred by the consummation of the marriage. The wife can claim a dower even after consummation.

dower can be fixed at and after the consummation of marriage and still can increase after marriage.

Father contracting marriage of his son. son not having independent means of his own, the father is liable for dower.

The right of retention of the husband's property in lieu of dower debt arises for the first time on the termination of marriage either by the death of the husband or by the divorce but there is no such right during the continuance of the marriage.

Various amounts paid by the husband to a wife during the marriage should not be presumed to have been paid in lieu of dower. 

DEFERRED DOWER

The husband's liability for the deferred dower is debt. The wife's interest in the deferred dower is a vested interest.