The main legal principle established in the judgment is that a life insurance policy taken out by a married man on his own life for the benefit of his wife is deemed to be a trust under Section 6 of the Married Womens Property Act, enuring for the benefit of the wife and not subject to the control of the husband or his creditors.

Pandrang Row, J.

1. The appellant in this second appeal and the petitioner in the Revision Petition are one and the same, the appeal and Revision Petition being alternative remedies pursued for the same purpose, namely, of getting the order of the District Judge of Vellore in C.M.A. No. 65 of 1934 set aside. That was an appeal from an order passed in an application by the creditor of an insolvent for the assignment of a policy of insurance taken out by the insolvent in his favour. The second respondent in the petition was the Life Insurance Company and the third respondent was the wife of the insolvent debtor. The only question that had to be decided by the Courts below was whether the life policy in question, Ex. I, contains a trust for the benefit of the wife, the third respondent. The verba ipsissima "the policy is for the benefit of the wife" are not to be found in the policy, but it is stated therein that the amount clue on the policy should be paid to the assured, that is, to the first respondent at the expiry of the period of 15 years, or to his wife on the death of the assured if earlier. In these circumstances, the Subordinate Judge was of opinion that there was no trust for the benefit of the wife and allowed the petition. On appeal the District Judge came to the contrary conclusion and allowed the appeal and dismissed the petition. Now the question for me to decide is whether the District Judges conclusion is right. The Subordinate Judge distinguished the case of Abhiramavalli Ammal v. Official Trustee of Madras (1931) 62 M.L.J. 111 : I.L.R. 55 Mad. 171 by saying that in that case the question had arisen only after the death of the assured whereas in the case before him the assured was alive. He also distinguished the case in Dinbai v. Bamanshaji I.L.R. (1933) Bom. 513 on the same ground. The District Judge was of the opinion however that the Subordinate Judge was not right in distinguishing the present case from the earlier case. It was held by Madhavan Nair, J., in that case that the actual words "for the benefit of the wife" need not be in the policy in order to attract the provisions of Section 6 of the Married Womens Property Act to any particular policy, and that if on a reading of the words used in the policy it appears that the assured intended in the event of his death that the policy should enure for the benefit of his wife, then the policy may be deemed to be for her benefit and brought within the purview of Section 6; in the particular case before him the provision regarding payment was similar to the provision in the present case, and it was held that the policy fell within Section 6 of the Married Womens Property Act of 1874 as amended by the subsequent Act of 1923. The only other decision which appears to take the opposite view is Lalithambal Ammal v. Guardian of India Insurance Co., Ltd. AIR1937Mad645 , where the policy contained practically the same provision about payment to the wife in case she survived the insured before the policy became matured and it was held that there was no vested interest of the wife in the policy till the death happened and that the assignment of the policy made by the insured was valid. The decisions however which were relied upon, namely, In re Ioakimidis Policy Trusts : Ioakimidis v. Hartcup (1925) 1 Ch. D. 403, In re Fleetwoods Policy (1926) 1 Ch. 48 and Cousins v. Sun Life Assurance Society (1933) 1 Ch. 126 were all cases in which it was held that there was a trust in favour of the wife. Where there is a trust the insured cannot deal with the policy as he likes. This is clear from the provisions of Section 6 of the Married Womens Property Act. Once it is found that a policy of insurance effected by a married man on his own life was for the benefit of his wife, then the section says that it shall be deemed to be a trust and enure for the benefit of the wife according to the interest so expressed and shall not, so long as any object of the trust remains, be subj