JUDGMENT

Asutosh Mookerjee, J. - This appeal is directed against the grant of Letters of Administration, with a copy of the Will annexed, to the estate of one Raj Krishna Khan who died on the 20th November 1917. He was born in 1897 and in 1914 was married to a girl twelve years old. At the time of his death, he left him surviving his mother, his minor widow and an infant brother. He was a member of the well-known family of Khans of Mankundu of the District of Hooghly and possessed properties of considerable value. He had taken to evil ways very early and was addicted to wine and women; for six or seven years before his death, he had kept a woman of the name of Sosilabala whom he did not abandon even after his marriage. On the 4th November 1917, he went to Puri for a change; the party consisted of five persons besides himself, namely, his manager, Bibhnti Bhusan Mukerjee, his mistress, Susila, another woman of the name of Puti, who apparently cooked for them, a hanger-on of the name of Binod and a sarvant Bipatram Kahar, who had been in his employ for about a year and a half, Raj Krishna had been to Puri in the year previous and had stayed in the house of one Krishna Chandra Guchika, a Panda of the temple of Jagannath. On the occasion of the second visit also, he took up his residence in a house of the Panda near the gate of the temple. On the 15th November Raj Krishna was taken ill at Puri, and it is said that as his condition did not improve he executed the disputed Will on the forenoon of the 19th November 1917. He died the afternoon of the 20th November 1917. The party returned to Calcutta on the morning of the 22nd November. On the 23rd March 1918, Rani Dasi, the mother of the testator, applied for Letters of Administration with copy of the Will annexed, for the use and benefit of her infant son, Bankim Chandra Khan. The estate was valued at Rs. 3,09,708. The application was supported by the affidavits of two of the attesting witnesses. A caveat had been already lodged on the 27th November 1917, by Surendra Krishna Mondal, the father of Bhramarbala Dasi, the widow of the deceased. After a protracted trial, Mr. Justice Chauduri name to the conclusion that the Will was genuine and had been duly made and attested. This conclusion has been sternuously assailed on behalf of the appellant and the judgment under appeal has been subjected to a searching criticism.

2. The Will, as already stated, is, alleged to have been executed on the forenoon of the 19th November 1917. There is practically no evidence as to what happened to the testator during the first ten days of his stay at Puri; but we know this much that his manager, Bibhuti Bhusan Mookerjee, who had accompained him from Calcutta on the 4th November, left Puri the very next day and returned to Calcutta. On the 15th November, Bipatram telegraphed to Bhibuti as follows: "Babu sick; moneyless; wire money; otherwise come". Bibhuti, on receipt of this message, forwarded Rs. 25 by money order, and next morning (15th November) wired back: "Sent Rs. 25 by money order yesterday." The case attempted to be made out in the evidence is that the illness of Raj Krishna did not take a favourable term, and he was attended, from the 16th November, by a medical practitioner named Haris Chandra Rao. On the evening of the 18th November, while Raj Krishna was apparently in considerable distress, he expressed an apprehension that he might not survive. On this Susila began to cry. Thereupon Raj Krishna promised to make provision for her and asked Bipatram to procure one or two demi papers so that he might make his Will, Early next morning, Susila, Puti and Binod went to take a bath in the holy tank of Markanda, Bipatram, during their absence, procured the demi paper. Raj Krishna dictated and Bipatram took down on slips of paper what Raj Krishna said. Bipatram, it must be mentioned here, did not know how to write Bengali and was probably very imperfectly acquainted with the Bengali language. He accor