JUDGMENT

G S Patel, J. - A. BACKGROUND

The Petition seeks probate to a Will dated 18th April 2006 (Compilation, Exhibit "P2", p. 8.) of one Pushpa Thakurdas Aswani ("the Testator"; "Pushpa"). She died in Mumbai on 4th May 2006 after two successive illnesses with a ten-day interval. Both required her hospitalization. The beneficiaries under the April 2006 Will are the children of Pushpa''s two brothers. The present Plaintif ("Prakash") is one of these. Pushpa herself was unmarried and had no lineal descendants.

2. The contest to the April 2006 Will, strangely in such cases, comes from an outsider to the family, one Mahesh Kisshinchand Aidasani ("Aidasani"). He claims Pushpa made an earlier Will dated 8th February 2006, i.e. just a few months before the April 2006 Will, and under it, appointed him the sole executor. (Compilation, Exhibit "D8", p. 279-284.) Both Wills are therefore said to have been made very shortly before Pushpa''s demise. Aidasani himself has filed Testamentary Petition No. 853 of 2008 for probate to the February 2006 Will. This is contested and is now numbered as Testamentary Suit No. 61 of 2009. It was filed some 22 months after Prakash filed the present Petition