1. This is a petition under Sec. 278 of the Indian Succession Act (in short the Act) for grant of Letters of Administration of the Will of Smt. Kamleshwari Devi, resident of Boring Canal Road, Patna. The petition was earlier registered as Testamentary Case No. 3 of 1991. After the Objector entered caveat it was converted into a suit and re-registered as Testamentary Suit No. 3 of 1996.

2. The case of the petitioners, who are the grand sons of Smt. Kamleshwari Devi (hereinafter called the testatrix) and beneficiaries of the disposition, is that the testatrix was the absolute owner of land bearing plot Nos. 172, 173, 174, 175 of khata Nos. 115/588 and 14 of village Dujra, Thana Digha (now known as Boring Canal Road within Budha Colony Police Station, Patna town), purchased by her from her streedhan on 3-6-53. After the purchase she got her name mutated in the revenue records. From her savings and streedhan she constructed a double storied house which was numbered as holding No. 494/414 B in the municipal records. She paid land revenue and municipal taxes to the State of Bihar and the Patna Municipal Corporation. On 22-8-86 she executed her last will at her aforesaid residence in the presence of her relatives and the attesting witnesses, namely, Dr. Birendra Prasad Sinha and Dr. Vijayee Singh. The attesting witnesses are also close relatives being respectively the grand son-in-law and husband of the niece of the testatrix. The husband of the testatrix Bisheshwar Prasad Narin Singh died on 31-1-87. The testatrix also died soon after on 31-3-87. The petitioners along with their father performed the last rites and Shradh. After the death of the testatrix the petitioners came in possession of the house and the land, got their names mutated in the records of the State and the Patna Municipal Corporation and are paying land revenue and taxes to them.

3. Caveat was filed by Devesh Pratap Singh objecting to the grant of the Letters of Administration. It is worth mentioning here that the testatrix had two sons, namely, Suresh Pratap Singh and Devesh Pratap Singh and a daughter, namely, Smt. Abha Singh. The petitioners herein are the sons of Suresh Pratap Singh. Considering that the objector being son was a direct heir and had heritable interest in the estate of the testator, his locus standi thus not being questioned, caveat was allowed and the proceeding was converted into suit, as indicated at the outset. At the stage of evidence he examined 7 witnesses including himself, and also produced some documents.

4. The case of the Objector is as follows. The petition is not maintainable as the Court has jurisdiction to grant probate or letters of administration of a will - whereas the so called disposition is not a Will at all, nor a document of transfer or bequeath. It is merely a wish or desire of Smt. Kamleshwari Devi to give the property to the petitioners. It is said that Smt. Kamleshwari Devi was seriously ill since 1980. She was mentally and physically very weak and incapable of understanding, she was not in a sound state of mind to execute any type of document much less a will. It is also said that the document in question, alleged to be Will is forged, fabricated and manufactured. The further case of the Objector is that the property did not exclusively belong to Smt. Kamleshwari Devi. She had, in fact, no property of her own. Whatever property she and/or the father has left behind is joint family property in which the Objector has share.

5. Before I enter upon the real issues involved in the case I wish to dispose of the two objections relating to the exclusive ownership of the testatrix and the nature of the document, which is the subject matter of the proceeding. As regards the former, the scope of proceeding for grant of Probate or Letters of Administration stands well settled by judicial pronouncements. The jurisdiction of the Court is limited to finding out if the Will was duly executed, is the genuine and last Will of t