Important Point-Testamentary petition have to be filed only before District Courts concerned.

V.M. Pancholi, J.

1. Rule. Learned Advocate Mr. Vinayak R. Raval waives service of notice of rule for respondent. C.A. (O.J.) No. 669 of 2014 has been filed by the original petitioner with a prayer that opposition made by the objector may be discharged/discarded whereas C.A. (O.J.) No. 371 of 2015 has been filed by the objector with a prayer that Testamentary Petition No. 1 of 2014 be dismissed for want of jurisdiction of this Court and this Court may decide the issue of jurisdiction as preliminary issue in Testamentary Petition. No. 1 of 2014.

2. The issue raised in both the aforesaid applications are interconnected and therefore, the same are taken up for hearing together.

3.1. That the original petitioner-Rakshit Natwarlal Patel has filed Testamentary Petition No. 1 of 2014 invoking testamentary jurisdiction qua concurrent jurisdiction of this Court under Section 300(1) and Section 57(c) of the Succession Act, 1925. In the said petition, the petitioner has stated that Shri Natwarlal @ Natubhai Mathurbhai Patel (hereinafter referred to as the testator) executed, admitted to have executed, got registered his Will. Execution of the said Will is attested by three witnesses. It is also registered in the office of Sub-Registrar, Vadodara on 5-12-2012. By way of the said Will, testator appointed the petitioner as the Executor of, over, with respect to all his property qua the testamentary estate. The schedule particularly of the immovable property situate within the district of Vadodara and Bharuch. The title deeds stated therein are the testators respective legal titles thereof. The petitioner is having original copy of the Will. The Sub-Registrar issued certified copy thereof. The same is annexed with the testamentary petition. It is the case of the petitioner that testator died testate at Vadodara on 10-1-2013. Therefore, the Will became effective forthwith i.e. from 10-1-2013 under the provisions of Section 2(h) of the Succession Act. Thus, the Executor-the petitioner is having representative title for all the property qua the testamentary estate of the testator. It is the case of the petitioner that the testator has, by way of the said Will, appointed the petitioner the sole, universal, residuary, legatee devising and bequeathing to him all the testamentary estate thereunder. The petitioner qua the executor assents to his own legacy completing his "ownership title" thereof from 10-1-2013 under Sections 332, 335(1) and 336 of the Succession Act. The Will is his legal "title deed" of the testamentary estate thereunder. The petitioner has shown his other surviving near relatives of the testators in Paragraph 8 of the petition namely testators elder bachelor son, testators pre-deceased daughter Geetas married daughter and testators pre-deceased daughter Geetas bachelor son. The petitioner, therefore, prayed in the petition that this Court may grant him the probate of the Will annexed at Annexure A with the petition.

3.2. This Court passed an order on 20-3-2014 whereby the Testamentary Petition is admitted and the citation was sent to the three near relatives of the testator whose details are given in the petition. The citation was also published on the notice board of this Court, District Court, Vadodara, District Court, Bharuch, Collector Office, Vadodara and Collector Office, Bharuch. It was also published in the Official Gazette.

3.3. In pursuance to the citation issued by this Court in the Testamentary Petition, the testators elder bachelor son namely Tushar Natwarlal Patel (brother of the petitioner) appeared before this Court and has filed written statement/objections against the grant of probate in favour of the petitioner. In the said objection mainly, the objector has stated that the Will produced at Annexure A seems to be not a genuine Will and for such averment he has relied upon certain revenue entries and the revenue proceedings. The objector has specifically taken the contention in the objection that present p