15. 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 ensure as her separate property, and the
contract evidenced by such policy shall be as valid as if made with an unmarried woman.
26. Insurance by husband for benefit of wife.—3
[(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 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 4
[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 5
[to constitute an Office of
Official Trustee], s.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.
6
[(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in s. 2, the provisions of sub-section (1) shall apply in
the case of any policy of insurance such as is referred to therein which effected—
(a) by any Hindu, Muhammadan, 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):
1. Cf. the Married Women’s Property Act, 1870 (33 and 34 Vict., c. 93), s. 10, para. 1.
2. Cf. the Married Women’s Property Act, 1870 (33 and 34 Vict., c. 93), s.10, para. 2.
3. S. 6 renumbered as sub-section (1) of that section by Act 13 of 1923, s. 2.
4. The word “Presidency” has been successively amended by the A.O. 1937, the A.O. 1950 and the Adaptation of Laws
(No. 2) Order, 1956, to read as above.
5. The relevant provisions of the Official Trustees Act, 1913 (2 of 1913) may be referred to.
6. Subs. by Act 61 of 1959, s. 3 for sub-section (2), (w.e.f. 1-3-1960), Earlier inserted by 13 of 1923, s. 2.
4
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.]