Letters of Administration granted to Class-I legal heirs under Section 278 of the Indian Succession Act when no objections are raised by co-heirs, confirming their rights to administer the deceased's estate.

ORDER

Asha Menon, J. (Oral)--The present petition has been filed under Section 278 of the Indian SUCCESSION ACT , 1925, for grant of Letters of Administration in respect of the Estate of late Sh. Shyam Sunder Sood and late Smt.Mamta Sood.

2. It is stated in the petition that late Sh.Shyam Sunder Sood and late Smt.Mamta Sood, the parents of the petitioner, met with an accident and expired on 22nd November, 2016 at 10 a.m. at Rajnagar, District Rajsamand, Rajasthan. The petitioner/Bhavana Sood, being their daughter, and the respondent No.2/Saurabh Sood, being their son, are the only children of the deceased.

3. It is stated in the petition that the deceased were Hindus and governed by Hindu laws. They had died intestate. Thus, the petitioner and the respondent No.2 are Class-I legal heirs of the deceased. As the search of the papers of the deceased revealed that they had left behind both, movable as well as immovable properties, as listed in the Schedules A (Colly.) & B (Colly.), the present petition has been filed for grant of Letters of Administration. In the petition, the petitioner has placed the valuation of the movable property/assets at Rs.2,07,57,042.80/- and that of the two immovable properties at Rs.85,62,625/-.

4. The petitioner has sought the following reliefs:

"i. Allow the present application and grant a Letters of Administration in favour of the Applicant, Ms.Bhavana Sood collection of all the moveable properties/assets and the immoveable properties/assets as specified in paragraph no.'s 7 and 8 but not limiting her claim/s to any other and/or further moveable properties/assets and/or immoveable properties/assets not mentioned hereinabove and which may be found existing in the name/s of the deceased at any later point of time, as specified in paragraph no.'s 7 and 8 and annexed herein as Schedule A [Colly] and Schedule B[Colly] annexed hereto the present application.; and/or

ii. Further enable the Applicant to administer all the immoveable properties and/or moveable properties/assets mentioned hereinabove and/or further immoveable properties and/or moveable properties/assets not mentioned hereinabove and which may be found existing in the name/s of the deceased at any later point of time, for enabling her to administer all the shares of the deceased and further to do/conduct all such and every act/s, if any, to the best of her ability in any manner whatsoever and whensoever.; and/or

iii. Such other and further order/s and/or relief/s as deemed fit, proper and appropriate under the facts and circumstances of the present case."

5. The Court had sought the Valuation reports from SDM, Saraswati Vihar, New Delhi and SDM, Gurugram, Haryana, in respect of the two immovable properties. These were submitted on 1st February, 2019 and 8th April, 2019. The value of the property bearing No.66-A, AD Block, Shalimar Bagh, New Delhi-110088, has been fixed at Rs.1,03,39,200/-. The other property, which is a 3BHK+Study flat having Super Area of 2125 Sft., i.e. Flat No.C402, 4th Floor, Type-III, NBCC Heights Phase-2, Sector 89, Gurugram (earlier known as Gurgaon), Haryana-122 201, has been valued at Rs.88 lakhs.

6. Citations were published in two newspapers, namely, `The Indian Express' and `Jansatta', both dated 25th December, 2018.

7. The respondent No.2 is the elder brother and only sibling of the petitioner. He has filed his affidavit dated 20th July, 2019, whereby he has given his `No Objection' to the grant of the Letters of Administration to the petitioner. He also appeared before court on 26th August, 2019 and confirmed that he had filed the affidavit dated 20th July, 2019 and affirmed before the court that he stood by its contents.

8. The petitioner examined herself as PW1 on 17th December, 2019 and no other witness. She brought on record the documents Ex. PW1/A to Ex.PW1/C, Ex.PW1/D/I(Colly.) to Ex.PW1/D/VIII (Colly.) and E