A daughter-in-law lacks caveatable interest in her in-laws' estate and must establish a direct legal claim to contest Letters of Administration, especially where legal heirs are not properly disclosed.

JUDGMENT :

KRISHNA RAO, J.

1. The applicant Smt. Jayshree J. Wadhwa W/o Late Dilip Wadhwa, residing at Tivoli Court, Apartment No. 66, 10th Floor, 1/A, Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata – 700 019 filed two applications being G.A. No.1 of 2024 for revocation of Letters of Administration in respect of the Estate of Late Damodardas J. Wadhwa granted by an order dated 20th July, 2023 and appointment of an independent person as an administrator in respect of the Estate of Late Damodardas J. Wadhwa and G.A. No. 2 of 2025 praying for interim order and mandatory injunction.

2. The applicant claims that at a family get together, the applicant came to know that Letters of Administration in respect of assets the estate of the deceased Damodardas J. Wadhwa was granted to Smt. Anusuya Pujara and that after her death on 13th February, 2024, her son Nirmal Pujara was claiming to be the sole owner of the joint family assets and properties on the basis of the Letters of Administration granted by this Court.

3. Mr. Suman Dutt, Learned Senior Advocate representing the applicant submits that the application for grant of Letters of Administration was prepared by suppressing vital facts and had obtained Letters of Administration by fraud. The petitioner has filed incomplete genealogical table and has not mentioned anything about the other surviving legal heirs of the deceased including the son and daughter of Dungershi J. Wadhwa and Kusum Asani. The petitioner in her application for grant of Letters of Administration made out a case that she is the only surviving heir of the deceased and no one else.

4. Mr. Dutt submits that this Court granted Letters of Administration to the petitioner considering that there were no other Class II heirs of the deceased. Damadordas J. Wadhwa was a member of Mitakshara coparcenary and since 2005 shared the coparcenary properties with his other brothers and sisters but the said fact was not brought to the notice of this Court and no notices was served upon any of the legal heirs. The petitioner in her application has not stated that the assets and properties mentioned in the Affidavit-of-Assets were the sole and self-acquired property of Damodardas J. Wadhwa.

5. Mr. Dutt submits that the deceased was bachelor and the Schedule of Assets consists of joint Hindu Family Property of Wadhwa Family which appears from the list of female jewellery and ornaments that has been mentioned in the Schedule of Assets.

6. Mr. Dutt submits that joint family assets originally came from the assets of Jerambhai Bhoolchand Wadhwa, the father of the deceased. Jerambhai Bhoolchand Wadhwa passed away in 1959 and at the time of his death, his three sons namely, Gordhandas J. Wadhwa, Dungershi J. Wadhwa, Damodardas J. Wadhwa and two daughters, namely, Anusuya Pujara and Kusum Asani and two grandsons, namely, Dilip Wadhwa and Bhushan Wadhwa were already born and had survived him as coparceners.

7. Mr. Dutt submits that Dilip Wadhwa had coparcenary rights over the assets mentioned in the Schedule of Assets. Dilip Wadhwa was alive when Damodardas J. Wadhwa passed away and also at the time of filing of an application by the petitioner for grant of Letters of Administration. Dilip Wadhwa is a