SARAL SRIVASTAVA, J.

(Order on Civil Misc. Applications No.18 of 2018, 19 of 2018 & 20 of 2018 and Civil Misc. Abatement Application No.7 of 2018).

1. Plaintiff Ram Naresh Singh instituted the present probate petition with a prayer for grant of probate of Will dated 13.05.1984 alleged to have been executed by Late Smt. Rani Rebati Devi. The plaintiff is the executor named in the said Will.

2. The present probate petition was earlier instituted in the court of district Judge, Deoria and was numbered as 72 of 2006, later on probate petition was renumbered as Case No. 37 of 2007. The aforesaid probate petition was transferred by the Apex Court by order dated 10.08.2018 in Civil Appeal No. 3668 of 2018 to this Court. On being transferred, the present probate petition is numbered as 1 of 2018.

3. After the record of probate petition is received, notices were issued to defendants in the suit. The registry submitted a report on 24.07.2018 that defendant no. 15 (Sri Kanhaiya Prasad Singh) & 20 (Vindhyavasini Singh) are dead. In another report of the registry dated 01.08.2018, it is stated that defendant no.11 (Smt. Rani T.R. Devi) is dead. Consequently, on the reports of registry, learned counsel for the plaintiff filed substitution application No. 2 of 2018 on 07.08.2018 to substitute the legal heirs of defendant nos. 15 and 20. Another substitution application no. 9 of 2018 along with delay condonation application no. 8 of 2018 was filed by the plaintiff on 19.08.2018 for substituting the legal heirs of defendant no.11. On the aforesaid applications, contesting defendants were granted time to file objection.

4. After filing the aforesaid substitution applications, plaintiff filed Civil Misc. Applications No.18 of 2018, 19 of 2018 and 20 of 2018 with a prayer for deleting the defendants no.11, 15 and 20 respectively from the array of the parties. This Court by order dated 30.11.2018 on the prayer made by learned counsel for the plaintiff dismissed the application nos.8 & 9 of 2018 and 2 of 2018 as not pressed.

5. It is also relevant to mention that defendant no.11 being real sister of the testator was impleaded being one of the heirs as described in paragraph 7 of the probate petition, while defendant no.15 & 20 were impleaded as they were named as trustee in the Will. Since all the defendants whose deletion has been sought by the plaintiff in the aforesaid three application had died prior to the institution of probate petition, therefore, in all the three applications, issues are common. Hence, they are being decided by common order. For the sake of convenience, the facts from the Civil Misc. Application No.18 of 2018 are taken.

6. In the application no. 18 of 2018 with respect to deletion of defendant no.11, plaintiff has stated that defendant no.11 was the real sister of Late Smt. Rani Revati Devi and had died on 22.02.1988 prior to the institution of present probate petition and as her death could not be ascertained at the time of filing the probate petition therefore, she was arrayed as defendant. The plaintiff prays that he be permitted to delete defendant no.11 from the array of the parties.

7. To the aforesaid applications, defendant no.1 Smt. Sharad Kumari filed objection contending therein that plaintiff did not make any effort to find out the correct date of death of defendant no.11, and the substitution application was filed by the plaintiff with an inordinate delay and no explanation was submitted by the plaintiff for condoning the delay in filing the said application. It is further pleaded that plaintiff has given the list of near relatives in paragraph 7 of the probate petition and further, in the present application plaintiff has stated that defendant no.11 has left behind her son as heir and legal representative, therefore, deletion of defendant no.11 from the array of the parties is not permissible and probate petition deserves to be dismissed as abated not only against defendant no.11 but also against defendants