Gifts, Streedhan and the List: Court Marriage in Kirari

Kirari after the 2026 reorganisation

The Delhi government's notification of 25 December 2025, effective 1 January 2026, took the National Capital Territory from eleven revenue districts and thirty-three sub-divisions to thirteen and thirty-nine. The North West district was reconstituted with three sub-divisions: Kirari, Nangloi Jat and Rohini.

This is a substantial change for anybody using older material. Saraswati Vihar and Kanjhawala were previously sub-divisions of North West and are not among the thirty-nine created on 1 January 2026. If a page tells you to file at 'SDM Kanjhawala' or 'SDM Saraswati Vihar', it predates this year - our pages for those localities explain where the files go now.

The Kirari sub-division covers Kirari Suleman Nagar, Prem Nagar, Mubarakpur Dabas side, Nithari, Amraj Colony and the settlements running towards the boundary. The SDM functions as Marriage Officer for people resident within it, at the Revenue Department's published counter window of 9.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. on any working day.

The line the law draws

Start with the two categories, because everything else follows from the distinction.

Section 2 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 defines dowry as any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given, either directly or indirectly, by one party to a marriage to the other, or by the parents or any other person to either party or to any other person, at or before or any time after the marriage in connection with the marriage.

Section 3(1) makes giving or taking dowry, or abetting the giving or taking of it, an offence punishable with imprisonment of not less than five years and a fine of not less than fifteen thousand rupees or the amount of the value of the dowry, whichever is more. Section 4 makes it a separate offence to demand dowry, directly or indirectly, from the parents, other relatives or guardian of a bride or bridegroom.

Then section 3(2) carves out presents. Nothing in section 3 applies to presents given at the time of a marriage to the bride, or to the bridegroom, without any demand having been made - provided that such presents are entered in a list maintained in accordance with the rules made under the Act. A further proviso adds that where the presents are made by or on behalf of the bride or anybody related to her, they must be of a customary nature and their value must not be excessive having regard to the financial status of the person by or on whose behalf they are given.

Read that carefully, because it contains three conditions and most people know only the first. No demand. Entered in a list maintained under the rules. And, for presents from the bride's side, customary and not excessive.

So the difference between a lawful wedding present and prohibited dowry is not only whether anybody asked. It is also, in the words of the statute itself, whether it was written down.

The list: what the 1985 Rules actually require

The Dowry Prohibition (Maintenance of Lists of Presents to the Bride and Bridegroom) Rules, 1985 set out what the list has to be. They are short, and there is nothing forbidding about them.

Two lists, not one. The list of presents given at the time of the marriage to the bride is maintained by the bride; the list of presents given to the bridegroom is maintained by the bridegroom.

Prepared at the time of the marriage, or as soon as possible after it.

In writing.

Containing, for each present: a brief description of it; its approximate value; the name of the person who gave it; and, where that person is related to the bride or bridegroom, a description of the relationship.

Signed by both the bride and the bridegroom. Where the bride is unable to sign, she may affix her thumb impression after the contents have been read out to her, and the person who read them out signs as well.

And either party may, if they wish, obtain the signatures of relatives or others present at the marriage on the lists.

That is the whole requirement. It is an afternoon's work with a notebook and a pen, done in the week after the wedding when the gifts are still stacked in one room and everybody remembers who brought what. It is also - and this is the part nobody says - the single most useful document a bride will ever have about her own property.

• Two separate lists - one for the bride, one for the bridegroom
• Prepared at the time of the marriage or as soon as possible afterwards
• In writing
• A brief description of each present
• Its approximate value
• The name of the person who gave it
• The relationship, where the giver is a relative
• Signed by both the bride and the bridegroom
• Thumb impression permitted where the bride cannot sign, with the contents read out and the reader signing
• Signatures of relatives or others present may be added if either party wishes

Streedhan, and why the list is the proof of it

Streedhan is a woman's own property - what was given to her before, at and after her marriage, by her parents, her husband's family and others, together with what she has earned or acquired herself.

The Supreme Court settled its character in Pratibha Rani v. Suraj Kumar (1985), holding that streedhan is the wife's absolute property over which she has full ownership, and that the husband or his relatives have no title to it - they may hold it, at most, as custodians.

That is a strong right. And like every strong right, it is only as good as the evidence that establishes what it covers.

Consider the two situations. In the first, a woman can produce a written list, made at the time of the marriage, signed by both spouses, describing each item, its approximate value and who gave it - and, if she took the further step the Rules permit, carrying the signatures of relatives who were there. In the second, she can describe from memory, several years later, jewellery that is no longer in her possession, against people who say it never existed or was sold with her agreement.

The law is the same in both. The outcomes are not.

This is why we treat the list as a protection rather than a formality. It costs nothing, it is required by rules that have been in force since 1985, and it is the difference between a right and a provable right.

Section 6 of the Act is the companion provision. Where dowry is received by a person other than the woman, it must be transferred to her within three months, and failure to do so is itself an offence punishable with imprisonment of not less than six months, which may extend to two years. The property belongs to her; holding it is not owning it.

How to do it, practically

Do it in the week after the wedding, before anything is moved or put away.

Get a notebook, not loose sheets. Number the pages. Write the date of the marriage at the top.

Go item by item. Jewellery first, described specifically - not 'gold set' but weight, description and approximate value where you know it. Then cash gifts, appliances, furniture, vehicles, clothing of significant value, and anything else of consequence. Against each, the giver's name and relationship.

Photograph the jewellery and the significant items, and keep the photographs with the list, dated.

Both of you sign at the end of each list. Add the signatures of two or three relatives who were present - the Rules expressly permit this and it costs nothing.

Keep receipts and invoices where they exist, particularly for jewellery, and keep them with the list.

Then keep a copy somewhere that is not the marital home. A scan in an email to yourself is enough. The value of a document that lives in only one house depends entirely on who controls that house.

One tone note, because we know how this reads to a couple in their first month of marriage. Making this list is not an act of suspicion and it is not a prediction about your marriage. It is the same category of act as registering the marriage itself: a record made while everybody remembers, kept in case a system later asks. Most people never need it. The ones who do, need it badly.

• Do it in the first week, before things are moved
• A bound, page-numbered notebook rather than loose sheets
• Describe each item specifically, with approximate value
• Name the giver and the relationship
• Photograph jewellery and significant items, dated, kept with the list
• Both spouses sign; add relatives' signatures as the Rules permit
• Keep invoices and receipts with the list
• Store a copy outside the marital home - a scan emailed to yourself will do

Where this connects to the criminal law

It is worth being clear about the surrounding provisions, without dwelling on them.

Demanding dowry is an offence under section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act. Giving or taking it is an offence under section 3. Failing to transfer dowry received to the woman within three months is an offence under section 6.

Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, section 80 deals with dowry death - where a woman's death is caused by burns or bodily injury, or occurs otherwise than in normal circumstances, within seven years of marriage, and it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or his relative for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry. Sections 85 and 86 deal with cruelty by a husband or his relatives, section 86 defining what cruelty means for that purpose. These provisions replace sections 304B and 498A of the Indian Penal Code.

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 provides civil remedies alongside these - protection orders, residence orders under section 17, monetary relief - and its definition of domestic violence includes economic abuse, which covers deprivation of streedhan.

We set this out because people ask, and because the connection to the list is direct: in almost every proceeding of this kind the first factual battle is over what was given, by whom, and to whom. A contemporaneous signed list is the document that shortens that battle.

Anything in this area is fact-specific and should go to an advocate or a legal services authority with the facts in front of them, and where someone is at risk, to the police.

Registering the marriage in Kirari

The list sits alongside registration; it is not part of the SDM's file. But both are records made at the same moment, and it is sensible to do them together.

If the ceremony has happened and both of you are Hindu, Buddhist, Jain or Sikh: registration under section 8 of the Hindu Marriage Act with the Delhi (Compulsory Registration of Marriage) Order, 2014. Clause 4(a) gives sixty days from the marriage, excluding the day of the final ceremony, on a fee of Rs 200. Clause 4(d) requires both parties to appear in person with two witnesses who attended the ceremony and hold proof of permanent residence in Delhi. Clause 6 allows condonation of up to sixty further days on Rs 500; clause 7 imposes a Rs 1,000 penalty beyond that, remittable by the Additional District Magistrate or District Magistrate; clause 10 provides an optional priority facility for Rs 10,000. The Revenue Department's Hindu Marriage Act page states Rs 100 on that route.

If there has been no ceremony, or you are of different faiths: the Special Marriage Act. Notice under section 5 to the Marriage Officer of a district where at least one of you has resided for thirty days, publication under section 6, thirty days for objections under section 7, solemnisation on or after the thirty-first day before three witnesses under section 11, and the certificate under section 13, which section 13(2) makes conclusive evidence of the marriage.

For age, the Revenue Department lists three acceptable proofs: matriculation certificate, passport or birth certificate. Aadhaar is not among them. For residence: voter I-Card, ration card, driving licence or passport. Self-attest everything and carry originals.

So the week after the wedding has two tasks in it: register the marriage, and write the list. Neither takes long, and both are records you will be glad exist.