#THE MARRIED WOMEN’S PROPERTY ACT, 1874 
_______ 

##ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS 
_______ 

PREAMBLE 

###I. — PRELIMINARY

SECTIONS 

1. Short title. 
2. Extent an application. 
3. [ Repealed.]. 

###II. — MARRIED WOMEN’S WAGES AND EARNGINGS 

4. Married women’s earnings to be their separate property. 

###III. —INSURANCES BY WIVES AND HUSBANDS 

5. Married woman may effect policy of insurance. 
6. Insurance by husband for benefit of wife. 

###IV. —LEGAL PROCEEDINGS BY AND  AGAINST MARRIED WOMEN 

7. Married woman may take legal proceedings. 
8. Wife’s liability for postnuptial debts. 

###V. —HUSBAND’S LIABILITY FOR WIFE’S DEBTS 

9. Husband not liable for wife’s antenuptial debts. 

###VI. — HUSBAND’S LIABILITY FOR WIFE’S BREACH OF TRUST OR DEVASTATION 

10. Extent of husband’s liability for wife’s breach of trust or devastation.

 
 
#THE MARRIED WOMEN’S PROPERTY ACT, 1874 

##ACT NO. 3 OF 1874

[24th February, 1874]. 

An Act to explain and amend the law relating to certain married women, for other purposes. 

**Preamble.**—WHEREAS  it  is  expedient  to  make  such  provision  as  hereinafter  appears  for  the 
enjoyment  of  wages and earnings  by  women  married  before  the  first day  of January,  1866,  and for 
insurances on lives by persons married before or after that day: 

AND WHEREAS by the Indian Succession Act, 18652 (10 of 1865), section 4 it is enacted that no 
person shall by marriages acquire any interest in the property of the person whom he or she marries, 
nor become incapable of doing any act in respect of his or her own property, which he or she could 
have done, if unmarried: 

AND  WHEREAS  by  force  of  the  said  Act  all  women  to  whose  marriages  it  applies  are  absolute 
owners of all property vested in, or acquired by them, and their husbands do not by their marriage, 
acquire any interest in such property, but the said Act does not protect such husbands from liabilities 
on account of the debts of their wives contracted before marriage, and does not expressly provide, for 
the enforcement of claims by or against such wives; 

It is hereby enacted as follows: — 

###I. — PRELIMINARY 

1. **Short title.**— This Act may be called the Married Women’s Property Act, 1874. 

2. **Extent and application.**— It  extends  to  the  whole  of  India  except  the  State  of  Jammu  and 
Kashmir[^1].

But  nothing  herein  contained  applies  to  any  married  woman  who  at  the  time  of  her  marriage 
professed the Hindu, Muhammadan, Buddhist, Sikh or Jain a religion, or whose husband, at the time 
of such marriage, professed any of those religions. 

And the 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 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. 

3. *[Commencement.] Rep. by the Repealing Act, 1876 (12 of 1876), s. 1 and Schedule.*

###II.—MARRIED WOMEN’S WAGES AND EARNINGS 

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, 

[^1].  Vide  Notification  No.  S.O.  3912  (E),  dated  30th  October,  2019,  this  Act  is  made  applicable  to  the  Union  territory  of 
Jammu and Kashmir and the Union territory of Ladakh. 

 
 
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. 

###III. —INSURANCES BY WIVES AND HUSBANDS 

5. **Married women 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 enure 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.** —(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 ensure 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 any object of the trust remains, be subject to the control of the husbands 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 State in which the 
office at which the insurance was effected is situated, 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. 17 of 1864 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) Notwithstanding anything contained in section 2, the provisions of sub-section (1) shall apply 
apply in the case of any policy of insurance such as is referred to therein which effected— 

  (a) by any Hindu, Muhammedan, Sikh or Jain — 

      (i) in Madras, after the thirty-first day of December, 1913, or 

      (ii) in any other territory to which this Act extended immediately before the commencement of 
the  Married  Women’s  Property  (Extension)  Act, 1959  (61  of  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 (61 of 1959), 

  (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 (61 of 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,  in  any 
case to which sub-clause (iii) of Clause (a) or Clause (b) applies.

###IV. — LEGAL PROCEEDINGS BY AND AGAINST MARRIED WOMEN 

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, 18652 (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  is 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 post-nuptial 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 : 

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, or 

  (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 ante-nuptial 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 hi s 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 he had continued unmarried: 

Provided  that  nothing  contained  in  this  section shall invalidate  any  contract  into  which  a 
husband may, before the passing of this Act, have entered in consideration of hi s wife’s ante-nuptial 
debts. 

###VI. – HUSBAND’S LIABILITY FOR BREACH OF TRUST OR DEVASTATION 

10. **Extent of husband’s liability for wife’s breach of trust or devastation.**—Where a woman is 
a trustee, executrix or administratrix, 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 deceased.