The court emphasized that a Will must be validly executed and free of suspicious circumstances, placing the burden on the propounder to dispel doubts about its authenticity.

JUDGMENT :

R.N. MANJULA, J.

The Testamentary Original Suit has been filed to allow the plaintiff to prove the Will in common form and that probate thereof to have effect limited to the State of Tamil Nadu may be granted to the plaintiff.

2. Heard Mr.D.J.Adinarayanan, learned counsel for the plaintiff and Ms.S.Meenakshi, learned counsel for the defendant and perused the materials available on record.

3. The short facts pleaded in the plaint are as follows:

The suit property belonged to the testatrix by name Rukmani Amma. She had two sons and one daughter. The plaintiff and one G.Ananthakrishnan are the two sons of late Rukmani Amma.The first defendant is the daughter of late Rukmani Amma. The second defendant is the son of late G.Ananthakrishnan and paternal grandson of late Rukmani Amma.Thus the plaintiff, defendants 1 & 2 are the class I legal heirs of the deceased Rukmani Amma. The plaintiff has been appointed as an executor of the Will. The granddaughter of the deceased Rukmani Amma, is said to be the only beneficiary of the Will. The said beneficiary is the daughter of the first defendant. Rukmani Amma died on 25.07.2004 at Isabella Hospital, Chennai. Before her death, she had written her last Will dated 13.07.1998 and it is a registered Will. As the original Will was lost and not traceable, the certified copy of the same has been filed. Subsequent to the death of Rukmani Amma, the petitioner has filed this Original Petition for seeking probate of the Will. As the second respondent has filed caveat, the Original Petition has been converted into Testamentary Original Suit.

4.The averments made in the written statement filed by the defendant is as follows:

Rukmani Amma has executed a settlement deed in favour of her daughter one Rajalakshmi on 04.11.1967 through a registered settlement deed. In the said settlement deed, Rajalakshmi was given with life interest and the absolute interest over the property was given in favour of the children of Rajalakshmi by name Sathyanarayanan and Ramadevi @ Rebecca. Subsequently, the said settlement deed was revoked by way of deed of Revocation dated 18.01.1984. The said Rajalakshmi also expired on 25.12.2022. The beneficiary of the Will by name Ramadevi was converted to Christianity. The Will has been executed by playing fraud upon the testatrix who has got no proficiency in English and who had an intention to divide the property equally between her legal heirs. That is the exact reason why she had revoked the earlier settlement deed dated 04.11.1967 also. Rukmani Amma did not have any intention to bequeath the property to the legatee who herself had got converted to Christianity.

4.1. During the year 2019, the defendant's father, Rajalakshmi and the plaintiff intended to develop the suit schedule property by entering into a joint venture agreement with the builder. But it has not been fructified. Due to Covid -19 pandemic, the whole plan was dropped. After the normalcy returned and after the demise of the defendant's father, the plaintiff had come out with the subject Will. Rukmani Amma was 83 years old at the time when the will was said to have been executed and it has not been executed by her when she was in a sound disposing state of mind. Hence, the Testamentary Original Suit should be dismissed.

5. On the basis of the above pleadings, the following issues are framed for consideration:

"(i) Whether the Will dated 13.07.1998 is true and valid?

(ii) To what relief?”

6. During the course of the trial, on the side of the plaintiff, the pl