Executors under a will are the legal representatives for all purposes, but the validity of their actions is subject to the probate of the will.

( 1 ) THE defendant of Money Suit No. 9 of 1992, being the petitioner in this application under section 115 of the Code Civil Procedure has assailed the order dated 12. 8. 96 passed by the learned Munsif, 1st Court, Bankura in connection with the said money suit, whereby and whereunder the application under section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure filed by the defendant praying for stay of the instant proceeding till the will is probated in the appropriate forum, was rejected only on the ground that two sons of the plaintiff though claimed to be the legal representatives to continue the suit on the basis of the will in view of their status as executors, but they had also the right as legal heirs on the property of the suit on pro rata basis.

( 2 ) THE petitioner herein has submitted that since all the legal heirs are not parties to the proceeding, and since only the executors under the will have been impleaded as parties to continue the suit, the left out legal heirs may cause problem until and unless the will is probated confirming the right of the executors, and in that view of the matter, the suit was required to be stayed till the concerned will was probated in the appropriate proceedings.

( 3 ) LEARNED Advocate for the opposite parties herein, that is the substituted heirs on the basis of such will as plaintiffs, has contended, inter alia, that in view of the terms of the Indian Succession Act, they are entitled to continue the suit irrespective of grant of probate in appropriate proceedings relating to the will on the strength and basis of which they acquired the right to continue the suit as legal representatives and there was no necessity of stay of the proceedings by imposing any rider as sought for.

( 4 ) CONSIDERING the rival contentions of parties, I feel that interpretation of sections of the Indian Succession Act, will only give a right answer on the issue in question. Accordingly, it is decided in that way. Under section 211 (1) of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, it is provided that the executor or administrator as the case may be, of a deceased person is his legal representative for all purposes, and all the property of the deceased person vests in him as such. Section 211 further provides under sub-section (2) that in absence of such will, where the property would have vested on the basis of succession, would not control the same in the event of existence of a will. The provision of section 211 is quoted in extenso for appreciation of the matter:"211. Character an property of executor or administrator as such.- (1) The executor or administrator, as the case may be, of a deceased person is his legal representative for all purposes, and all the property of the deceased person vests in him as such. (2) When the deceased was a Hindu, Mahammadan, Buddhist, Sikh, Jaina or Parsi or an exempted person, nothing herein contained shall vest in an executor or administrator any property of the deceased person which would otherwise have passed by survivorship to some other person. "now, who would be the legal representative? section 2 sub-section (11) of the Code of Civil Procedure defines the legal representative as follows:" (11) "legal representative" means a person who in law represents the estate of a deceased person, and includes any person who intermeddles with the estate of the deceased and where a party sues or is sued in representative character of the person on whom the estate devolves on the death of the party so suing or sued. "

( 5 ) ON a simple reading of section 2 (11) of the Code of Civil Procedure, it is clear that even a person who intermeddles with the estate of deceased, has been termed as a legal representative and it is further provided that the person upon whom the estate devolves on the death of a party, also is to be termed as legal representative. Hence reading section 2, sub-section (11) of the Code coupled with section 211 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, it is clear that