India, Sept. 12 -- The Delhi High Court on Thursday ruled that a wife does not automatically acquire ownership rights in a matrimonial home purchased in her husband's name merely by residing in it.

A bench of justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar clarified that any legitimate claim to such property must be backed by the wife's "meaningful and substantive contribution" to the house. In the absence of such evidence, the ownership rights remain with the husband, it held.

The ruling came on a woman's petition challenging in the high court a family court's July order that dismissed her plea for a 50% share in her husband's property. The couple, married in 2005 and had two children, separated in 2020 after years of discord....