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1958 Supreme(Raj) 258

Rajasthan High Court
Modi, J.
Sheonath Singh - Appellant
Versus
Madanlal - Respondents
Civil Second Appeal No. 30 of 1954
Decided On : December 12, 1958

Advocates Appeared:
P.C. Bhandari, for Appellants; Harsaran Sahai, for Respondents

Headnote:Succession—Indian Succession Act, Sec. 213 and Jaipur Succession Act, Sec. 213—Probate—Failure to obtain.

       Sec. 213 has nothing to do with the vesting of the estate of the deceased in any particular person and that matter must really be governed by the personal law of the parties. What sec. 213 really does, is that it lays down a rule of procedure, that rule being that a person seeking to establish his tight in any court of justice as executor or legatee under a will must have obtained the probate of the will under certain circumstances mentioned in the section, Again the section precludes the "establishment" of a right as executor or legatee in a court of justice but does not affect the right as such for which we must indeed look elsewhere, Where such a right may not come up for being established in a court of law the want of a probate need not and would not affect the right of a legatee under the will. There was one rule of procedure as laid down by sec. 213 of the Jaipur Act when the will happened to be made in this ease according to which the obtaining of a probate was necessary before a legatee could successfully establish his right as such in a court of law. This rule underwent a change when the Indian Act after the repeal of the Jaipur Act came to hold the field from April, 1,951, onwards, and according to this rule the obtaining of a probate by a legatee with respect to a will executed by a resident in this State or even by a non-resident with reference to immovable property situate in this State was no longer necessary. In there circumstances sec. 213 of the Indian Act merely lays down a rule of procedure just as did sec. 213 of the Jaipur Act though the content of the two rules is not the same and the later one does away with the restrictions prescribed by the earlier one. (Para 8)

Modi, J.—I his is a second appeal by the plaintiff Sheonath Singh in a suit for possession and cancellation of a will.

2. The material facts may be shortly stated as follows. It is common ground that Kan Singh deceased and the plaintiff Sheonath Singh are first cousins. On the 15th November, 1946, Kan Singh made the will Ex. 1 in favour of one Madanlal by which he bequeathed all his movable and immovable property to the said Madanlal. Sheonath Singh thereupon instituted the present suit during the life-time of Kan Singh on the 29th December, 1948, on the allegations that Kan Singh was a member of a joint Hindu family consisting of himself and the former and that he had no right to make a will of the joint family property in the manner in which did. The suit was originally brought against Kan Singh only and was merely for cancellation of the will. Kan Singh subsequently died on the 28th September, 1949. Thereupon the plaintiff amended his suit, impleaded Madanlal as defendant in place of Kan Singh deceased and prayed for possession also. The Munsiff Dausa in whose court the suit had been filed dismissed it in the first instance by his judgment dated the 29th March. 1952. The Munsiff found against the plaintiff on all the contentions raised by him except that he held that the plaintiff was the nearest heir of the deceased Kan Singh, but he also held that that was of no materiality as in his view Kan Singh was a separated member and had a right to make a will with respect to his own property. The Munsiff further held that it was unnecessary for the defendant to obtain a probate of the will in order to succeed in his claim to the property of the said Kan Singh under that will. The plaintiff then went in appeal to the District Judge, Jaipur District, Jaipur. It appears to have been strenuously urged before the learned District Judge that the trial court should not have decided that the will could be given effect to even though it was unprobated, without framing an issue on that point, and that in any ease that court had fallen into error when it came to the conclusion that sec. 213 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 (Act No. XXXIX of 1925) (hereinafter referred to as the Indian Act) was applicable to the present case and not sec. 213 of the Jaipur Succession Act, 1943 (Act No. XXIX of 1943) (hereinafter referred to as the Jaipur Act). It appears to have been conceded before the learned appellate Judge that if the Jaipur Act was held to be applicable to the facts of the case, then the plaintiff was bound to succeed as the defendant could not obtain any right under the will unless a probate thereof had been obtained by him in accordance with the provisions of the aforesaid Act. In this view of the matter, the learned District Judge remanded the suit with a direction to the trial court to decide whether the present case was governed by sec. 213 of the Jaipur Act or by sec. 213 of the Indian Act, and, further, if the latter Act applied, whether the defendant could succeed in establishing his right under the will without obtaining a probate thereof. The Munsiff after remand held that the parties were governed by the Indian Act as it had come into force in this State before the present suit was decided and that under that section it was entirely unnecessary for the defendant to take out a probate of the will in suit. The Munsiff, therefore, again dismissed the suit. The plaintiff went in appeal to the District Judge, Jaipur District Judge,who also affirmed the judgment of the trial court on the 2nd December, 1953. The plaintiff has now come up in second appeal to this Court.

3. The only question for determination in this appeal is one of law, namely, whether the finding of the courts below to the effect that the parties were governed in this case by sec. 213 of the Indian Act and not by the corresponding section of the Jaipur Act is correct.

4. Sec. 213 of the Jaipur Act reads as follows:—

"Right as executor or legatee when established. (1)





















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