K.A. Abdul Gafoor, J.

1. Disposal of MFA.No.870/97 will resolve the dispute in CRP.672/1997.

2. As per the judgment impugned in MFA.870/97, the application of the appellant under Sec.213 of the Indian Succession Act for probate of a Will has been dismissed. Few facts are necessary to dispose of this appeal.

3. The appellant is the legatee of a Will executed by her father on 8.3.1958. Her father died on 1.12.1959. The parties belong to Vaniya Christian in Palakkad. According to her they are following Hindu law on succession. So the Will did not require a probate. So no steps in that regard had been taken. The appellant had been married away to a place in Tamilnadu and was permanently residing there. The property that she had got in terms of the Will. According to her, were being managed by her mother and brother. While so in the year 1997, the Taluk Land Board, Chittur served a notice on the appellant's brother on a suo motu proceedings, TLB S.M.No.211/1997 requiring him to surrender excess land in his possession in terms of the provisions contained in Act 1 of 1964. Knowing that as the properties stood bequeathed in favour of the appellant, she filed a claim petition contending that 10.03 acres of land covered by the suo motu proceedings before the Land Board really belonged to her and was in her possession and should have been exempted. This claim was put up based on the above mentioned Will. The Taluk Land Board accepted the Will, though only a copy was produced before it. No original of the Will was produced before the Taluk Land Board. Aggrieved by the Order, the State took up the matter in revision before this Court as CRP.561/1983. This court set aside the order of the Taluk Land Board on the ground that the parties being Christians, the Will could have been acted upon and relied on, only if it had been probated. By a judgment of this Court, the appellant was directed to get the Will probated, if she wanted to rely on it. This Court thus allowed the CRP filed by the State, on 22.2.1991.

4. In the meantime, during the pendency of the proceedings before the Taluk Land Board, the appellant filed O.S.13/82 before the Munsiff Court, Chittur seeking-injunction against her own brother, the first respondent herein. The State has not been made a party in the said suit, it is conceded. The petitioner's brother remained ex parte in the suit and the suit was decreed,ex parte on 20.2.1982. It is to be remembered that the suit was filed only on 10.1.1982. It is stated that the original of the Will was produced in the said suit to prove the title of the appellant to the property forming subject matter of the said suit. Within a week it seems the appellant had obtained a certified copy of the alleged Will to be produced before the Taluk Land Board which ultimately was acted upon by the Taluk Land Board as already mentioned above. Thereafter nothing is stated about original of the Will.

5. After disposal of the revision petition directing appellant to obtain probate, of the Will as per judgment dated 22.2.1991 in CRP.No.561/1983, wherein only a period of six months had been granted to approach so, the petitioner filed an application under S.213 of the Indian Succession Act on 23.7.1991 a producing there with a certified copy of the Will, Ext.A7, which she had obtained : to be produced before the Taluk Land Board, in the year 1982. In this respect . the contention of the appellant is very pertinent to be noted, that the appellant obtained only the certified copy of the Will to be produced before the Taluk Land Board, but did not obtain the original of the Will returned inspite of the disposal of the suit on 20.2.1982. This aspect is very material with regard to the disposal of this MFA.

6. On 23.7.1991, when the application for probate has been preferred in the District Court, Palakkad, itself the appellant applied in Ext.A6 for return of the original of the Will from the Munsiff Court. That was after 9 and half years of the disposal of