The main legal point established in the judgment is the necessity of proper proof of a Will under the Indian Succession Act, including the identification and endorsement of the document by the attesting witness, and the responsibility of the advocate and the court in ensuring the proper examination of witnesses and the document.

JUDGMENT :

RAJIV SAHAI ENDLAW, J.

1. This petition (i) under Section 276 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 for grant of probate in respect of the last Will of the deceased Man Mohan Lal Khanna S/o Late Shri I.D. Khanna R/o A-1/287, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi-110 029 and (ii) under Section 278 of the Indian Succession Act for grant of Letters of Administration of properties of the deceased Man Mohan Lal Khanna in respect of which no bequest has been made in the Will, is ripe for final hearing.

2. The deceased Man Mohan Lal Khanna, Hindu by religion, is pleaded to have died on 18th March, 2016 leaving a Will dated 16th April, 2012, executed on 28th April, 2012, naming the petitioner as one of the supervisor of the execution of the Will.

3. It is pleaded that the deceased Man Mohan Lal Khanna was not married and had no children and is survived by the petitioner as his sister and respondent no. 2 Kamal Kishore Khanna as his brother and only natural heirs.

4. The petition came up before this Court first on 18th October, 2016 when the counsel for the petitioner stated that “since there is no executor in the Will, the present petition may be treated as a petition for grant of letters of administration.” Notice of the petition was ordered to be issued to the respondent no. 2 Kamal Kishore Khanna and citation ordered to be published. The respondent no. 2 Kamal Kishore Khanna appeared through Advocate and sought time to file objections. The order dated 12th April, 2017 records that citation ordered to be published had been published. The respondent no. 2 Kamal Kishore Khanna filed objections by way of IA No. 5061/2018 and also filed IA No. 5062/2018 under Order I Rule 10 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC) seeking impleadment of Anup Khosla and Mrs. Neil Khosla, the named executors of the Will of the deceased Man Mohan Lal Khanna and which executors were stated to be alive. Vide order dated 20th May, 2019, IA No. 5062/2018 was allowed and Anup Khosla and Mrs. Neil Khosla were impleaded as respondents no. 3 and 4 to the petition.

5. On 3rd July, 2019, the counsel for the respondent no. 2 Kamal Kishore Khanna and the counsel for the respondents no. 3 and 4 Anup Khosla and Mrs. Neil Khosla stated that none of the respondents had any objection to the probate sought by the petitioner. The counsel for the petitioner also, on 3rd July, 2019 stated that the petitioner had filed the affidavit of one of the attesting witnesses to the document claimed to be the Will, of which probate was sought. It was however observed in the order dated 3rd July, 2019 that “the petitioner has to prove the document claimed to be the Will as the validly executed last Will of the deceased Man Mohan Lal Khanna in accordance with law before this Court and inspite of no objection stated to have been given, probate cannot be granted on consent.” The petitioner was accordingly directed to file affidavits by way of examination-in-chief of all her witnesses within four weeks and the matter posted before the Joint Registrar on 8th August, 2019 for recording of statements of the said witnesses and before this Court for today.

6. The order dated 25th September, 2019 of the Joint Registrar records that the petitioner had examined herself as PW-1 and one Pankaj Agarwal, claimed to be the attesting witness to the document claimed to be the Will, as PW-2 and the respondent no. 1 State had opted not to cross-examine the said witnesses and none appeared for respondents no. 2 to 4 and the evidence of the petitioner stood concluded.

7. The petitioner has proved the Death Certificate of Man Mohan Lal Khanna as Ex.PW-1/1. Ex.PW-2/1 has been endorsed on the document claimed to be the Will of deceased Man Mohan Lal Khanna during the evidence of PW-2 Pankaj Agarwal. The typed Will contains the date of execution thereof of 16th April, 2012 but the last page thereof along the signatures purportedly of the deceased Man Mohan Lal Khanna bears the date in hand of 28th April, 2012 and the do