JUDGMENT :

(Prayer in A.No.620 of 2021: Application filed under Order XIV Rules 8 of Original Side Rules read with Section 263 of Indian Succession Act, 1925 seeking for the following reliefs:

(a) this application should not be treated as urgent; and

(b) this Court should not be pleased to revoke the letters of administration in O.P.No.559 of 2018 dated 15.12.2020 by this court to file of this Court.)

1. This application has been filed seeking to revoke the letters of administration granted by this Court on 15.12.2020 in favour of S. Nithya Devi, the petitioner in O.P.No.559 of 2018. The applicant is the maternal uncle of S. Nithya Devi in whose favour the letters of administration was granted by this Court in respect of a Will dated 23.04.2008 executed by her grand mother Poora Devi who died on 05.01.2017.

2. Under the Will dated 23.04.2008, the testatrix Poora Devi, the deceased bequeathed the subject property in favour of her grand daughter S. Nithya Devi who sought for grant of letters of administration of the said Will in O.P.No.559 of 2018 and this Court granted the same in her favour on 15.12.2020. While granting the letters of administration, this Court had taken into consideration the oral evidence of PW1 - S. Nithya Devi, the respondent herein and PW2 – Lalitha, one of the attesting witnesses to the Will dated 23.04.2008 as well as the consent affidavit given by Malini Sivakumaran, the mother of S. Nithya Devi, giving no objection for grant of letters of administration in favour of S. Nithya Devi.

3. The original petition seeking for grant of letters of administration was filed in the year 2018 and since the other legal heir of the deceased testatrix did not give his consent for grant of letters of administration in favour of S. Nithya Devi, notice was ordered to Mr. Gopinath, the son of the deceased Poora Devi who is the applicant herein. The applicant received the notice in the month of December 2019. Only after the application was duly served in O.P.No.559 of 2018, this Court granted the letters of administration on 15.12.2020 in favour of S. Nithya Devi.

4. This application has been filed by R. Gopinath, the son of the deceased testatrix Poora Devi seeking for revocation of the letters of administration dated 23.04.2008 passed in O.P.No.559 of 2018 on the ground that he had engaged an Advocate to contest the case for grant of letters of administration sought for by S. Nithya Devi in O.P.No.559 of 2018 on receipt of the notice in the said O.P. in the month of December 2019. According to him, his Advocate had proceeded to North India and therefore, he could not immediately attend to the case. It is also contended by the applicant that due to Covid Pandemic, proper steps could not be taken by the applicant to contest the petition filed by his sister’s daughter S. Nithya Devi seeking for grant of letters of administration. It is also his case that by using her undue influence, S. Nithya Devi obtained the Will in her favour from her grand mother.

5. A counter affidavit has been filed by S. Nithya Devi, the grand-daughter of the deceased Poora Devi in whose favour letters of administration was granted by this Court on 15.12.2020 in O.P.No.559 of 2018 denying the allegations of the applicant. According to the respondent S. Nithya Devi, the applicant was very well aware of the Will executed by Poora Devi in the year 2017 itself much prior to the filing of the petition O.P.No.559 of 2018 by S. Nithya Devi seeking for grant of letters of administration. According to her, the applicant herein and his father K. Raju are the partners in the partnership firm and after the demise of K. Raju, the grandfather of the respondent S. Nithya Devi, as per the terms of the partnership firm, the partnership has to be dissolved and the share of K. Raju will have to be settled between his legal heirs and as per the same, Poora devi, the petiti