Section 67: Right of husband to dispose of wife’s property—Amendments made to
consolidated text (as at 2017). juris shows the text as it was consolidated; it does not confirm that this is the law in force today.
67. Right of husband to dispose of wife’s property—Amendments made to
Code Civil Mauricien by Act No. 26 of 1980 enabled a husband to dispose of
property from the legal community of goods without the wife’s consent. Respondents challenged the constitutionality of those provisions, claiming that
they were in breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights and of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and that they were discriminatory to married women.
HELD International instruments cannot be of assistance if they are not
incorporated into Mauricien law. The questioned provisions were not discriminatory towards married women, nor were they in breach of section 8 of
the Constitution. The provisions do not permit a husband to deprive the wife
of her share in the property of the community. They merely authorise the
husband to administer and dispose of the community property, acting on his
own, but he remains accountable to his wife for the share belonging to the
latter. If a husband diverts the whole of the community property upon a sale,
he would be liable to his wife under the general law for “faute” pursuant to
article 1382 or 1383 of the Civil Code. Pulluck v Ramphul (2005).