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YUGEN REALTY, SURAT
Any person has the full right and authority to manage his own acquired property after his death according to his own will and therefore a will is made and the testator makes his children or any relative or third person the owner of the property after his lifetime.
But when the testator has appointed only his children as the beneficiaries of the will, then the children who are deprived of other rights, show that there are suspicious circumstances regarding the will and dispute that their share is included in the property and that they are entitled to such a share in equal proportion.
In such a situation, the beneficiary of the will is challenged in front of the court by presenting the reasons for the suspicious circumstances regarding the will.
Thus, while examining the authenticity of the Will, it is not for the Court to see whether the distribution made by the testator among all his children was fair and equitable or not.
The Court does not apply Article 14 to the property arrangement under the Will. Such a principle has been established by the Hon’ble Supreme Court (Bench Bench) in the case of Swarnalatha and others vs. Kalavati and others, Civil Appeal No. : 1565/2022, by passing the final order dated 30-03-2022.
Brief facts of the case :
Mother Adhilakshmi Yammal died on 14.08.1995. She had made a will in favour of her two sons, in which she had purchased the properties and those properties which she had acquired from her maternal uncle.
The will dated 30.01.1995 was left behind. No share was given to daughter Kalavathi on the ground that sufficient provisions had already been made for her.
Also, the father Mannar Reddiyar died on 08.08.2000. He left behind a will dated 10.12.1998, bequeathing his properties in favour of his two sons and his grandchildren. No property was allotted to daughter Kalavathi under this will either.
Thereafter, daughter Kalavathi and (testator’s) surviving son V.M. Sivakumar filed a suit for partition bearing O.S. No. 387/2005 on the file of the District Munsif Court, Poonamallee.
On being informed about the same, the present appellants-beneficiaries filed an application vide Probate Original Application No. 1/2005 on the file of the Principal District Judge, Vellore under sections 270, 276 and 289 of the Act for granting probate of the wills of Mannar Reddiyar and Adhilakshmiyammal.
That application was strongly opposed by the daughter and the second son of the testator. However, the District Court, by judgment dated 07.06.2010, granted probate of both the wills.
Before the Probate Court, the defendants focused their attention on the circumstances surrounding both the wills and the alleged suspicious circumstances.
Although the defendants also submitted that the testators had no right to dispose of their properties by way of will, the Probate Court rejected it on the express ground that the jurisdiction of the Probate Court was not to decide disputed questions of title to any property.
The testators were not of sound and sound mind, the High Court held the appellants liable for not disclosing the nature of the ailments suffered by them.
The act of excluding one of the natural heirs from the inheritance cannot in itself be a basis for holding that there are suspicious circumstances.
The law relating to doubtful circumstances surrounding the making of a will is already well established and there is no need to repeat it.
It is sufficient to refer to one of the recent decisions of the Court, Kavita Kanwar vs. Smt. Pamela Mehta, 2020 AIR (S.C.) 544, in which this Court referred to almost all the previous decisions starting from H. Venkatachala Iyengar vs. B.N. Thimmajamma, 1959 AIR (S.C.) 443.
But the cases in which doubt has been created are mostly those where there is a dispute about the signature of the testator or the mental capacity of the testator has been questioned.
This can be seen from the fact that almost all the earlier decisions of this Court referred to in the case of Kavita Kanwar (cited above) list such circumstances which were doubtful in the light of the sound and decisive state of mind of the testator.
In examining the validity of the fact of making a will, it is not for the court to see whether the distribution made by the testator was fair and equitable among all his children or not. The court does not apply Article 14 to the property arrangement under the will.
As stated above, it will be known from studying the findings given in various judgments of the learned Senior Court that any person can distribute the property acquired by him during his lifetime in a will as per his will and wish and if such a will is challenged before the court after the death of the person, then such a court has to examine the validity of the will and decide the matter.
For example, the signature made in the will, the mental state of the testator, the presence of suitable witnesses and properly signed, suspicious circumstances etc., the learned Court has the power to examine the issues which are to be examined for a valid will.
But the learned Court has no jurisdiction to determine the extent to which the deceased has given his property to whom in the will.
When a person has directed that his property be distributed as per his wish, the learned Court has no jurisdiction to conclude that such distribution is improper, unequal, unnatural or unjust.
Thus, the learned Court cannot hold that the will of a deceased person is doubtful because he has given less to or excluded any of his heirs in his will.
Thus, while examining the authenticity of the will, it is not for the Court to see whether the distribution made by the testator was reasonable and equitable among all his heirs or not. The Court does not apply Article-14 to the property arrangement under the will.
(Land Laws Judgments, Volume-1, Issue-3, March-2023, Page No. 227)
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Disclaimer : This information has been collected through secondary research and Yugen Realty Newspaper is not responsible for any errors in the same.
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