The registration of a document does not conclusively establish its validity, but merely evidences the execution of the document by the executants thereof.

SANJIB BANERJEE, J.

1. LAND-sharks are on the prowl and they seem to care little for the battle having shifted from the turf they wish to secure to a court of law. They trade allegations on affidavit just as recklessly as they would resort to every trick not in the book to procure their cherished piece of the earth. The choice here is not between who makes out the prima facie case or defence, but in who has adopted the less dishonest stand. Since the land is in up-market Short Street in the coveted Park Street-Theatre Road area, the stakes are high; that the area the parties fight for is over 17 cottah with profitable vertical possibilities, the matter has let loose a set of audacious assertions and denials.

2. THE plaintiffs claim the first plaintiff to be the executor of a yet unprobated will of one Sailabala Sein with the second plaintiff as a legatee thereunder. THE plaintiffs allege that the Short Street property is the subject-matter of the alleged will and that the first and second plaintiffs have sold the same to the third plaintiff. THE suit is for asserting the third plaintiffs exclusive rights in respect of the property. THE immediate interlocutory relief sought in GA No. 778 of 2011 is to restrain the defendants from dealing with the property or disturbing the third plaintiffs possession thereof. THE other part of the claim in the suit is for a declaration that certain documents and deeds relating to the property as set up by some of the defendants are illegal and void and the consequential injunction.

The plaintiffs interlocutory application also carries a prayer that the documents assailed should not be relied upon by the appropriate defendants. Apart from the plaintiffs asserting the third plaintiffs title to the property, the plaint refers to two deeds of conveyance relating to the same property registered on June 21 and 22, 1999 in Mumbai. These documents appear to have been executed by the fourth defendant as the attorney of Sailabala and apparently provide for the transfer of the property in favour of the third defendant company. On the strength of such title-deeds, the third defendant conveyed the property in favour of the first and second defendants on or about September 29, 2010. The plaintiffs allege that the fourth defendant is a stranger to the family of Seins and did not reside at the Madan Mitra Lane address that he furnished as his in the documents he appears to have executed as Sailabalas attorney in 1999. The plaint questions the 1999 transaction on the ground of its stated consideration of Rs.9.5 lakh for the 17-cottah property; maintains that the third defendant company is defunct and at the time of the transaction did not have the means to pay even such meagre amount; and, argues that the 1999 transaction was invalid since the fourth defendant could not have executed the documents on behalf of Sailabala without a registered power of attorney being executed in his favour.

3. THERE is a preliminary challenge put forth by the third defendant by way of GA No. 1120 of 2011. The third defendant insists that since Sailabalas will has not yet been probated, the plaintiffs could not have instituted the suit on the strength of the unprobated will. For such purpose, Section 213 of the Succession Act, 1925 is pressed into service. The third defendant says that in the absence of probate of Sailabalas alleged will being secured, neither the alleged executor thereof nor the alleged legatee thereunder could attempt to establish the right to the property that is claimed in the suit and is alleged to have been passed to the third plaintiff. A judgment reported at (1962) Supp (3) SCR 294 (Hem Nolini Judah v. Isolyne Sarojbashini Bose) has been carried by the third defendant in support of such argument. Paragraph 7 of the report is placed for the interpretation of Section 213 (1) of the Act therein that it creates a bar to the establishment of any right under will by an executor or a legatee unless probate o