1. The plaintiff in a suit for the grant of Letters of Administration of the will annexed to the plaint is the revision petitioner.

2. The trial of the suit, it is said, is virtually over. What remains to be done is to argue the matter. It was at this stage the petitioner moved I. A. 1384/88 for sending Exts. A3 and B1 alongwith Exts. XI to X8 to a hand-writing expert for his opinion, regarding the identity of the signature of the testator seen in Exts. B1 and A3, the two wills relied on by the parties in support of their respective contentions. Exts. XI to X8

are documents which, it is alleged, contain the signature of the testator.

3. The question arising for consideration is: Is the opinion of an expert as regards the signature of a testator relevant to decide the issue, whether a will has validly been executed? The point involved in the question is not covered by any direct authority, the learned counsel for the parties say, and therefore the point has to be decided on principle.

4. The answer to the question depends upon the construction of S.63 of the Indian Succession Act as also S.45, 68, 69, 70 and 71 of The Indian Evidence Act. S.63 of the Indian Succession Act pr