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Will cannot be challenged for unfair &unequitable Distribution Supreme Court (Article 14 does not apply)
A Will cannot be challenged for unfair &unequitable
Distribution Supreme Court (Article 14 does not apply)
"“The
exclusion of one of the natural heirs from the bequest, cannot by itself be a
ground to hold that there are suspicious circumstances - Cases in which a
suspicion is created are essentially those where either the signature of the
testator is disputed or the mental capacity of the testator is questioned
. In the
matter of appreciating the genuineness of execution of a Will, there is no
place for the Court to see whether the distribution made by the testator was
fair and equitable to all of his children. The Court does not apply Article 14
to dispositions under a Will.",
The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Hemant
Gupta and V.Rama Subramanian observed that the exclusion of one of the natural
heirs from the bequest in a Will, cannot by itself be a ground to hold that
there are suspicious circumstances
Facts ;In this case, a probate granted
by the District Court in respect of two last Wills and Testaments, one by the
father and another by the mother, was set aside by the Madras High Court. One
of the suspicious circumstances, according to the High Court, was the total
exclusion of the daughter from the bequest and the failure to mention in the
Wills, the dates on which the daughter was paid certain amounts, are crucial.
In this regard, the Apex Court bench
observed:
"When it was not even the case of the
respondents that the testators were not in a sound and disposing state of mind,
the High Court found fault with the appellants for not disclosing the nature of
the ailments suffered by them. The exclusion of one of the natural heirs from
the bequest, cannot by itself be a ground to hold that there are suspicious
circumstances. The reasons given in Exhibit P1 are more than convincing to
show that the exclusion of the daughter has happened in a very natural way. If
Exhibit P1 (Will) had been fabricated on blank papers containing the
signatures of the mother, there would have been no occasion for the father to
make a mention in his own Will (Exhibit P2) about the execution of the Will by
the mother."
While allowing the appeal, the
court made the following observations on the law relating to suspicious
circumstances surrounding the execution of a Will:
" cases in which a suspicion is created are
essentially those where either the signature of the testator is disputed or the
mental capacity of the testator is questioned. This can be seen from the fact
that almost all previous decisions of this Court referred to in Kavita Kanwar vs. Mrs. Pamela Mehta and Ors.& H.
Venkatachala Iyengar vs. B.N. Thimmajamma list out circumstances, which in the
context of the lack of sound and disposing state of mind of the testator,
became suspicious circumstances. In the matter of appreciating the genuineness
of execution of a Will, there is no place for the Court to see whether the
distribution made by the testator was fair and equitable to all of his
children. The Court does not apply Article 14 to dispositions under a
Will."
Each one of
the circumstances (recorded by the High Court), neither individually nor
collectively creates a suspicion.
Case Swarnalatha
vs Kalavathy | 2022 (SC) 328 |
CA 1565 of
2022 | 30 March 2022
Coram: Justices Hemant Gupta and
V. Ramasubramanian
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