Punjab Laws Act, 1872

This is a very old colonial-era act from 1872 that most of its own text shows has since been extensively repealed, replaced, or overtaken by later legislation — readers should treat almost everything in it as historical, and verify any current rule against up-to-date Punjab law rather than this text. Its original purpose (Section 3) was to declare which pre-existing rules, laws, and regulations would remain in force in the Punjab, listing them in a First Schedule, while repealing others via a Second Schedule.

The surviving provisions concern the "rule of decision" courts must apply in certain civil matters. Section 5 (as later substituted) directs that in questions of succession, marriage, divorce, dower, adoption, guardianship, wills, and similar family matters, courts should apply the custom applicable to the parties (for non-Muslims) or Hindu law (for Hindus), where not altered by later legislation — though a footnote notes this has itself been overtaken for Muslims by the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937. Section 6 says that in cases not otherwise covered, judges should decide according to justice, equity, and good conscience, and Section 7 gives the same status to valid local customs and mercantile usages.

Sections 8 through 38 — covering pre-emption, land decrees, insolvency, and minors and the Court of Wards — are all marked as repealed, superseded by dedicated Punjab legislation on those subjects (such as the Punjab Pre-emption Act, 1905 and the Provincial Insolvency Act, 1907). Sections 39A-39F, which survive, let the Provincial Government establish a system of village or municipal watchmen, make rules for their appointment, powers, and duties, and levy local taxation to pay them, with procedures for objecting to proposed taxes. Section 43 allows the Provincial Government to control the slaughter of cattle and sale of beef, and Sections 47-50B cover minor miscellaneous matters like crossing streams on inflated skins or buoys and using pasturage on government land, along with rule-making power and penalties for breaking those rules (the act's extracted text does not specify a particular fine or penalty amount).