The main legal point established in the judgment is that the Plaintiff proved the due execution of the Will and the soundness of mind of the Testatrix at the time of execution. The Court also found that the Will did not contain any suspicious circumstances and the dispositions in the Will were not inequitable.

1. The Plaintiff seeks probate of a Will dated 24th May 1973 left by his mother, Bhanumati Narottamdas Chapsi (“Bhanumati”). Bhanumati’s husband was one Narottamdas Negandhi, but it appears that she did not take his surname. It is not disputed that Bhanumati, born in 1919, was about 54 years old when she made the Will in question, or that she lived for 19 years thereafter until her death at the age of 73 on 14th May 1992. Narottamdas died before she, on 24th July 1979. He was one of the two Executors named in her Will; the Plaintiff is the other. The Plaintiff is, thus, the sole surviving Executor of Bhanumati’s Will.

2. Bhanumati and Narottamdas had six children: Pratapsingh, born in 1936; Yaswant, the 2nd Defendant, born in 1941; Indumati, the 3rd Defendant’s mother, born in 1943; Hemkala, born in 1948, the 1st Defendant; Chittaranjan, the Plaintiff, born in 1950; and Kirtikumar born in 1952. Of these six children, Pratapsingh and Kirtikumar have not opposed this Petition. Hemkala, Yaswant and Indumati, all filed Caveats and supporting Affidavits and are now arrayed as Defendants Nos. 1, 2 and 3 respectively. For reasons that are now not material, Indumati (the 3rd Defendant’s mother) withdrew her Caveat. For his part, Yaswant seems not to have participated in these proceedings; he led no evidence. The solitary opposition comes from the 1st Defendant, Chittaranjan’s older sister, Hemkala.

3. The Will in question, [Exhibit “A” in evidence, p. 7 of the paper-book.] is a typed document prepared with some degree of formality by M/s. Tyabji Dayabhai, an old and reputed firm of Solicitors. The Will has four typed pages. There is a docket at the reverse. There are no markings on pages 1, 2 and 3. I note this because there has been some level of argument that there are portions of the Will that are demonstrably erroneous to Bhanumati’s knowledge. These ought to have been corrected before execution; the absence of corrections is, the Defendants submit, itself a sufficiently suspicious circumstance to warrant a dismissal of the Petition. Four pages of the Will are typed front and reverse. Page 4 has Bhanumati’s signature in English in a running hand. This is in blue ink. The handwriting is firm and the letters are well-formed. From the signature alone, it is not possible to say that on the date of this Will, 24th May 1973, Bhanumati suffered from such impairment as would render her incapable of making a valid testamentary writing. I note this at the beginning because there is not even a suggestion to this effect, although a case is attempted to be made out of want of testamentary capacity.

4. Just above the execution is the date, and here we find the expression “24TH” written in blue ink. Again, there are arguments based on this, to which I shall return. There are then two signatures and an endorsement at the foot of this paper. The first is in blue ink. It reads “Chimanlal C. Vakil” and below that “Solicitor, Bombay”. Below that is the signature of “V.J. Ved”, also in blue ink, and below that, the words “his clerk”. The last endorsement at the very foot of the page says, “Read over and explained to the Testatrix before execution. Chimanlal C. Vakil.”

5. Hemkala, Defendant No. 1, entered a Caveat dated 3rd February 1994. In her Affidavit in Support, she alleged that the Will was false, unnatural, got up and fabricated. She took a specific plea that her mother, Bhanumati, suffered from an early age from what is described in this Affidavit as ‘hysteria’. In this context, paragraph 9(b) of the Affidavit in support of the Caveat merits reproduction:

“9(b). I say that since the age of about 22 years i.e. since the year 1941, thereafter through out her life, my said mother was suffering from Chronic deceased of Hysteria. I say that frequent attacks of Hysteria were coming to the said deceased. I say that due to the said decease of H