Sir John Edge :-

This is an appeal from a decree, dated the 27th March, 1913, of the High Court at Calcutta, which reversed a decree dated the 11th March, 1911, of a Subordinate Judge of Midnapur which had granted probate to Bankim Bihari Maiti of a will of Shiba Prashad Maiti of the 4th December, 1909.

This will, of which a grant of probate is sought by Bankim Bihari Maiti, the nephew and executor of the testator is alleged to have been executed on the evening of Saturday, the 4th December, 1909, by Shiba Prasad Maiti, of Sontan Chuck in the district of Midnapur, who was a Hindu under the law of the Dayabhaga, and was possessed of considerable movable and immovable property which he purported to dispose of by the will. If it was his will, he was competent as a Hindu under the law of the Dayabhaga to dispose of his property as by the will he disposed of it. If Shiba Prasad Maiti had died intestate his widow, Barada Sundari Dasi, would have been entitled as his heir to the property of which he died possessed, as he had no son. Shiba Prashad left surviving him his widow, Barada Sundari Dasi, Matangini Dasi, his daughter by a predeceased wife his brother Ananda Lal Maiti, and Bankim Bih