Married Womens Property Act, 1874 :: Indian Bare Acts
1. Short title
This Act may be called the Married Women's
Property Act, 1874.
2. Extent and application
1[It extends to the whole of
But nothing herein contained applies to any
married woman who at the time of her marriage professed the Hindu, Muhammadan, Buddhist, Sikh or Jaina
religion, or whose husband, at the time of such marriage, professed any of
those religions.
And the 3[State Government] may from time to
time, by order, either retrospectively from the passing of this Act or
prospectively, exempt from the operation of all or any of the provisions of this
Act the members of any race, sect or tribe, or part of a race, sect or tribe,
to whom it may consider it impossible or inexpedient to apply such provisions.
The 3[State Government] may also revoke any
such order, but not so that the revocation shall have any retrospective effect.
All orders and revocations under this section
shall be published in the official Gazette.
4[***]
3. Commencement-
Repealed by the Repealing Act, 1876]
4. Married women's earnings to be their
separate property
The wages and earnings of any married woman
acquired or gained by her after the passing of this Act, in any employment,
occupation or trade carried on by her and not by her husband,
and also any money or
other property so acquired by her through the exercise of any literary,
artistic or scientific skill,
and all savings from and investments of such wages, earnings and property, shall be deemed to be her separate property, and her receipts alone shall be good discharges for such wages, earnings and property.
5. Married woman may effect
policy of insurance
Any married woman may effect a policy of insurance on her own behalf and independently of her husband; and the same and all benefit thereof, if expressed on the face of it to be so effected, shall ensure as her separate property, and the contract evidenced by such policy shall be as valid as if made with an unmarried woman.
6. Insurance by husband for benefit of wife
5[(1)] A policy of insurance effected by any
married man on his own life, and expressed on the face of it to be for the
benefit of his wife, or of his wife and children, or any of them, shall endure
and be deemed to be a trust for the benefit of his wife, or of his wife and
children, or any of them, according to the interest so expressed, and shall
not, so long as any object of the trust remains, be subject to the control of
the husband., or to his creditors, or form part of his estate.
When the sum secured by the
policy becomes payable, it shall, unless special trustees are duly appointed to
receive and hold the same, be paid to the Official Trustee of the 6[State] in
which the office at which the insurance was effected is situate, and shall be
received and held by him upon the trusts expressed in the policy, or such of
them as are then existing.
And in reference to such
sum he shall stand in the same position in all respects as if he had been duly
appointed trustee thereof by a High Court, under Act No. XVII
of 1864 7[to constitute an office of Official Trustee], section 10.
Nothing herein contained
shall operate to destroy or impede the right of any creditor to be paid out of
the proceeds of any policy of assurance which may have been effected
with intent to defraud creditors.
2[(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in
section 2, the provisions of sub-section (1) shall apply in the case of any
policy of insurance such as is referred to therein which is effected-
(a) by
any Hindu, Muhammadan, Sikh or Jain-
(i)
in
(ii) in any other
territory to which this Act extended immediately before the commencement of the
Married Women's Property (Extension) Act 1959, after the first day of April,
1923, or
(iii) in any territory to which this Act extends on and from the
commencement of the Married Women's Property (Extension) Act, 1959, on or after
such commencement;
(b) by a Buddhist in
any territory to which this Act extends, on or after the commencement of the
Married Women's Property (Extension) Act, 1959:
Provided that nothing herein contained shall
affect any right or liability which has accrued or been incurred under any
decree of a competent court passed-
(i) before the first
day of April, 1923, in any case to which sub-clause (i)
or sub-clause (ii) of clause (a) applies; or
(ii) before the commencement of the Married Women's Property (Extension) Act, 1959 (61 of 1959), in any case to which sub-clause (iii) of clause (a) or clause (b) applies.]
7. Married women may take legal proceedings
A married woman may maintain a suit in her own name for the recovery of property of any description which, by force of the said Indian Succession Act, 18658, (10 of 1865) or of this Act, is her separate property; and she shall have, in her own name, the same remedies, both civil and criminal, against all persons, for the protection and security of such property, as if she were unmarried, and she shall be liable to such suits, processes and orders in respect of such property as she would be liable to if she were unmarried.
8. Wife's liability for postnuptial debts
If a married woman (whether married before or
after the first day of January, 1866) possesses separate property, and if any
person enters into a contract with her with reference to such property, or on
the faith that her obligation arising out of such contract will be satisfied
out of her separate property, such person shall be entitled to sue her, and, to
the extent of her separate property, to recover against her whatever he might
have recovered in such suit had she been unmarried at the date of the contract
and continued unmarried at the execution of the decree:
9[Provided that nothing herein
contained shall-
(a) entitle such person to recover anything by
attachment and sale or otherwise out of any property which has been transferred
to a woman or for her benefit on condition that she shall have no power during
her marriage to transfer or charge the same or her beneficial interest therein,
as
(b) affect the liability of a husband for debts contracted by his wife's agency expressed or implied.]
9. Husband not liable for wife's antenuptial debts
A husband married after the thirty-first day
of December, 1865 shall not by reason only of such marriage be liable to the
debts of his wife contracted before marriage, but the wife shall be liable to
be sued for, and shall, to the extent of her separate property, be liable to
satisfy such debts as if she had continued unmarried:
Proviso.- Provided that nothing contained in this section shall 10[***] invalidate any contract into which a husband may, before the passing of this Act, have entered in consideration of his wife’s antenuptial debts.
10. Extent of husband’s liability for wife’s
breach of trust or devastation
Where a woman is a trustee, executrix or , either before or after marriage, her husband shall not, unless he acts or intermeddles in the trust or administration, be liable for any breach of trust committed by her, or for any misapplication, loss or damage to the estate of the deceased caused or made by her, or for any loss to such estate arising from her neglect to get in any part of the property of the deceased.]
Foot Notes
1. The Act has been extended to and brought
into force with modification in Dadra and Nagar Haveli by Reg. 6 of 1963, w.e.f. 1st. July, 1965.
2. Substituted by Act No. 61 of 1959, w.e.f. 1st. March, 1960.
3. Substituted by Act No. 38 of 1920, the A.O.
1937 and the A.O. 1950 for the words "G.G. in C.".
4. Omitted by Act No. 39 of 1925.
5. Section 6 renumbered as sub-section (1)
thereof by Act No. 13 of 1923.
6. Substituted by the A.O. 1937, the A.O. 1950
and the Adaptation of Laws (No. 2) Order, 1956 for the word
"Presidency".
7. See now the relevant provisions of the
Official Trustees Act, 1913.
8. See now the Indian Succession Act, 1925 (39
of 1925).
9. Substituted by Act No. 21 of 1929
10. The words "affect any suit instituted
before the passing of this Act, nor" omitted by Act No. 12 of 1891.
11. Inserted by Act No. 18 of 1927.
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