In the present investigation, hydrolysis method has been used to synthesize mangnese doped BiOCl. The catalyst was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron micrographs (SEM) and diffusive reflectance spectra (DRS) methods. Interesting results have been obtained from diffusive reflectance spectra which depicted that there is a shift in the optical absorption edge towards higher wavelength, which indicates a decrease in the band gap upon Mn doping. The photocatalytic activity of Mn doped catalyst was evaluated from the photodegradation of methylene green (MG) aqueous solution under visible light irradiation. Mn2+ doping effectively improved the photocatalytic activity of BiOCl under visible light irradiation. The possible degradation pathway has been proposed for the photocatalytic degradation by using certain radical scavengers. The photocatalytic reaction mechanism of Mn doped BiOCl catalyst has also been tentatively discussed.