The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937

A six-section statute enacted in the last decade of British rule that displaced local Hindu-influenced custom in Muslim families and made the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) the rule of decision in marriage, divorce (including talaq, khula and mubaraat), maintenance, dower, guardianship, gifts, trusts, wakfs and intestate succession. Section 3 adds an opt-in route to extend the same regime to adoption, wills and legacies. The Act is small but constitutionally significant — it is the principal entry point of Muslim personal law into the modern Indian legal system.

Sections: 6
Chapters: 1
Tier: Tier 1
Commenced: On enactment, 7 October 1937.

Preamble

What this Act sets out to do

An Act to make provision for the application of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) to Muslims. WHEREAS it is expedient to make provision for the application of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) to Muslims; It is hereby enacted as follows:—

Table of contents

Chapters

1 chapters

Chapter I§1–6
The Act
The Act is short and self-contained — six numbered sections in a single PDF, no chapter divisions in the source. Despite its length it is the gateway through which Muslim personal law enters every Indian civil court. Section 2 is the heart: it tells the court that custom no longer prevails, the Shariat does. Sections 1 and 6 do the territorial and repealing housework. Section 3 lets a Muslim opt in to a wider personal-law regime that also covers adoption, wills and legacies. Section 4 lets State Governments make procedural rules. Section 5 is now a repealed shell — judicial divorce was carved out into a separate 1939 statute.
6 sections

Source

Read the Act yourself

Every section page on this site links back to the exact page in the source PDF. You can also open the full Act below.

Source PDF

Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act, 1937.pdf

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About this Act

Quick facts

Year: 1937
Sections: 6
Chapters: 1
Tier: Tier 1

Amendments

1939Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 — consequential — Section 6 of the 1939 Act repealed Section 5 of this Act (which had originally dealt with dissolution of marriage by Court in certain circumstances). Today, judicial dissolution of a Muslim marriage on grounds such as desertion, cruelty or impotence is governed by the 1939 Act, not by Section 5 here.
1943Amending Act 16 of 1943 — Tweaked Sections 3, 4 and 6 — narrowed the scope of Section 3 to 'the provisions of this section' and refined the list of repealed provincial provisions in Section 6.
1959Part-B States adaptation (Act 48 of 1959) — Extended the Act's territorial reach by removing the Part-B States carve-out, w.e.f. 1 February 1960.
1963Kerala State amendment (Kerala Act 42 of 1963) — Substituted a new Section 2 in its application to Kerala — removing the agricultural-land exclusion so that even land-related personal-law disputes between Muslims are decided by Shariat in Kerala.
1968Pondicherry (Act 26 of 1968) — Carved out the 'Renoncants' of the Union Territory of Pondicherry — French-law citizens who had renounced personal law — from the application of this Act.
1983Amending Act 20 of 1983 — Inserted Section 4(4), requiring State Government rules made under the Act to be laid before the State Legislature.
2019J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019 — Section 95 + Fifth Schedule omitted the 'except the State of Jammu and Kashmir' phrase from Section 1(2) w.e.f. 31 October 2019. The Act now extends to the whole of India without exception.

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