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1943 Supreme(SC) 52
Privy Council At Allahabad
Sir George Rankin, Lord Porter, Justice Lord Atkin, JJ.
Ashtbhuja Ratan Kuer -Appellant
Versus
Thakur Debi Baksh Singh and another -Resopndent
Privy Council Appeal No. 31 of 1941 ; Allahabad Appeal No. 24 of 1937
Decided On : 21-12-1943
Hy S.L. Polak and Co., R.K. Handoo, C.S. Rewcastle
Jurisdiction to grant letters of administration exists if any property of the deceased is within the District Judge's jurisdiction. Such jurisdiction is distinct from the judge's discretion to limit the grant. Genuineness of a will can be established through government records and consistent witness testimony.
Headnote:(A) Succession Act, 1925 - Sections 270, 271 and 273 - Jurisdiction for grant of letters of administration - If the deceased had a fixed place of abode or any property, moveable or immoveable, within the jurisdiction of a District Judge, such Judge has jurisdiction to grant letters of administration - Section 271 provides for the discretion of the Judge to refuse the application or limit the grant to property within his own jurisdiction, but this provision relates to discretion and does not negate the underlying jurisdiction - A grant of letters of administration has effect over all the property and estate of the deceased throughout the Province in which it is granted.
(B) Genuineness of Will - Evidence of authenticity - Where a government memorandum acknowledges receipt of a document purporting to be a will, and the terms of the will are consistent with the actions taken, such evidence supports the genuineness of the document - The findings of the trial court regarding the credibility of attesting witnesses and eye-witnesses to the signature should be upheld if based on ample evidence.
Facts of the case:
A petition for letters of administration with a copy of a will annexed was filed by the posthumous daughter and residuary legatee of a testator. The will, executed years prior, provided successive life interests to widows and the remainder to the daughter. The will had been sent to a government department shortly after the testator's death, as per its own instructions, and was later recovered from a locked box and registered. The grant of letters of administration was challenged on the grounds of lack of jurisdiction, as the majority of the estate was located in a different region, and on the allegation that the will was a forged document.
Findings of Court:
The District Judge had jurisdiction because a portion of the property was located within his jurisdiction. The exercise of discretion to grant letters of administration absolutely was justified. The will was found to be genuine based on the government's acknowledgment of receipt, the ingenuous nature of the document's terms, and the testimony of the attesting witnesses accepted by the trial court.
Issues: (i) Whether the District Judge had jurisdiction to grant letters of administration when only a small portion of the estate was within his jurisdiction; (ii) Whether the grant was invalid for not being limited to property within that jurisdiction; and (iii) Whether the genuineness of the will was established.
Ratio Decidendi: Under Section 270 of the Succession Act, 1925, the existence of any property within the judge's jurisdiction is sufficient to establish jurisdiction. Section 271 relates to the judge's discretion, not the existence of jurisdiction. Regarding the will, the combination of a genuine government acknowledgment, the non-professional nature of the drafting, and the trial court's acceptance of witness testimony outweighs suspicions regarding the delay in registration or the location of the document's discovery.
Result: Appeal allowed.
Legal Category Hierarchy
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practice and procedure
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succession and probate
-
letters of administration
- jurisdiction
- grant of administration
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wills
- genuineness and forgery
- registration
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letters of administration
-
succession and probate
Lord Porter.:-
This appeal from a decree of the High Court at Allahabad dated 15th April 1937, concerns the genuineness of an alleged will of one Thakur Ambika Bakhsh Singh.
The main questions for determination are : (i) whether on the evidence before the Courts in India the genuineness of the will was established; (ii) whether the grant of letters of administration cum testamento annexo by the District Judge of Benares (which is within the "province" of Agra) is invalid on the ground that although the whole of the testator's property was situated within the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, yet by far the larger and more valuable part of it was in Oudh and only a portion small in quantity and value was situated in Agra.
On 1st October 1904, the testator is said to have executed in Jaunpur in Agra a will by which he gave successive life interests in his estate of Nanemau to (a) his elder brother's widow; (b) his own senior wife ; (c) his own junior wife, and thereafter in the events which happened to his posthumous daughter, who is appellant before their Lordships' Board.
The testator is described in the document as being and in fact was Talukdar of Nanemau, District Sultanpur, Oudh.
The will is a lengthy document which sets out firstly his title to the property, secondly his relatives who were living and dead and thirdly his reason for making a will at that time. It then goes on to deal with the succession to his estate in the manner set out above. Its terms are somewhat garrulous and ingenuous but not perhaps, unnatural in a man of the testator's position more particularly as he appears to have been influenced by the death of his brothers, which occurred at a comparatively early age, and by the prognostications of an astrologer who foretold danger to the testator's life in his 35th and 36th year, i.e., about a year after the date of the making of the will. The will concludes in para. 8
"Paragraph No. 8-I will keep this memorandum of will having enclosed it in an envelope at such a place that after my death no one except the three Thakuranis have access to it and I will write a slip in Hindi giving instructions that whoever may find it should not disclose it but should at once get it posted in some distant post office, and probably she will do so. I have thought of this plan so that there may be no friction among the three Thakuranis and no Thakurain should bring any accusation against another Thakurain that the Talukdar had done this in consultation with her, otherwise it will be a cause of ill-feelings among them. The envelope in which this memorandum will be enclosed will bear an address so that it may be presented before His Excellency the Governor-General of India in Council and His Excellency will be graciously pleased to send it to that officer who will fully take into consideration the conditions laid down herein because I do not know what department should deal with it and which officer is competent to consider over the contents thereof."
The testator died on 13th August 1905, at about the age of 35 or 36, leaving (i) his elder brother's widow, (ii) his own senior widow, (iii) his own junior widow, alive at his death. The appellant, who is the testator's daughter by his junior widow, was born posthumously on 31st October 1905.
After his death someone appears to have carried out certain directions as to the despatch of a will of the testator to the Government of India, since, when the will in dispute was afterwards produced in the manner described later, there was attached to it a memorandum of the Government of the United Provinces addressed to the testator and there was written upon it an endorsement in red ink.
(1) The memorandum is in the following terms :
"REVENUE DEPARTMENT.
Dated, Allahabad, 25th January 1906.
Office Memorandum.
The undersigned is directed to acknowledge the receipt of a document dated 1st October 1904, purporting to be the will of Babu Ambika Bakhsh Singh, Talukadar of Nanemau, Sultanpur District, which h
