The honest answer is that a prenup in India is a useful document with weak teeth, and anyone who tells you it is watertight is overselling it.
Why enforceability is doubtful
- Under Hindu law, marriage is treated as a sacrament, not a contract, so an agreement regulating its dissolution sits awkwardly with the legal character of the relationship.
- Courts have held agreements that contemplate or facilitate future separation to be opposed to public policy under Section 23 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872.
- Statutory rights to maintenance under Section 24 and 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act, and under Section 144 BNSS, cannot be contracted away. A clause purporting to waive maintenance entirely will not bind the court.
Where a prenup does have force
- Goa follows the Portuguese Civil Code, under which an ante-nuptial agreement on the property regime is recognised. It is the clear exception in India.
- For parties married under the Special Marriage Act, and in cross-border marriages, a well-drafted agreement carries more persuasive weight.
- Courts may treat it as evidence of the parties' intention about the ownership of specific assets, particularly assets brought into the marriage or gifted by one side's family.
What actually works instead
Two things. First, keep clean documentation of what each of you owned before the marriage and what each contributed afterwards, because Indian courts decide property questions on title and contribution, not on a notional matrimonial pot. Second, when a marriage does end, a properly drafted settlement agreement recorded in the decree is fully enforceable. That is the document that does the work a prenup is imagined to do.
Two things. First, keep clean documentation of what each of you owned before the marriage and what each contributed afterwards, because Indian courts decide property questions on title and contribution, not on a notional matrimonial pot. Second, when a marriage does end, a properly drafted settlement agreement recorded in the decree is fully enforceable. That is the document that does the work a prenup is imagined to do.
If you still want one
Have it drafted with independent advice on both sides, full financial disclosure, no clause purporting to waive maintenance or custody, and a clear schedule of separate property. Sign it well before the wedding, not the night before. At worst it is a strong statement of intention; at best it prevents the dispute entirely.