IMPORTANT POINT
Daughter of propounder of Will, whether natural or adopted, has a right to be heard as with regard to a probate proceedings concerning Will of her father.

Mihir Kumar Jha, J.—Heard Counsel for the petitioner.

2. In the opinion of this Court the impugned order does not suffer from any jurisdictional error inasmuch as Smt. Shanti Mishra a daughter of the propounder to the Will whether natural or adopted has definitely a right to be heard as with regard to a probate proceeding concerning the Will of her father. To that extent the petitioner’s objection to impleadment of Shanti Mishra is in teeth of the provisions of Section 283 of the Indian Succession Act.

3. The grievance of the petitioner that Shanti Mishra ceased to be daughter of late Bhagwath Nath Mishra after her being adopted by one late Kamal Nath Tiwari and therefore, not competent to contest the probate proceeding, in the opinion of this Court is rather premature and in fact the Court below has rightly proceeded to hold that this issue would be gone into at the time of final disposal of the probate proceeding.

4. Counsel for the petitioner family submits that there is no registered deed for adoption of Shanti Mishra and in that view of the matter, there can also be no presumption of adoption in terms of Section 16 of the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act.

5. Mr. Sandeep Kumar, learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the opposite party, has submitted that the law that any person showing even a bit of concern in the property bequeathed under the Will will have a right to be heard in the purported exercise of Section 283 is by now well settled. He has in this context referred to the judgment of Calcutta High Court in the case of Parimal Kumar Das and others v. Prasun Kumar Das, (2004) 1 Cal. LT 621 and a Division Bench of Delhi High Court in the case of M/s. Indian Associates v. Shivendra Bahadur Singh and others, AIR 2003 Del 393.

6. In the opinion of this Court the submissions made by the learned Counsel for the opposite party is in keeping with the wordings of Section 283(1 )(c) which reads as follows:-

“283. Powers of District Judge — (1) In all the District Judge or the District Delegate may, if he thinks proper,—

(a) …….

(b) …..

(c) issued citations calling upon all persons claiming to have any interest in the estate of the deceased to come and see the proceedings before grant of probate or Letters of Administration.”

From the aforementioned provisions and the expression used “claiming to have any interest in the estate of the deceased” is wide enough to include the person have slight and bare possibility of an interest to oppose a testamentary proceeding. This aspect of the matter was gone into by this Court in the case of Matukdhari Singh v. Smt. Prem Debi and others, AIR 1959 Pat. 570 wherein it was held that true meaning of expression ‘interest in the estate of the deceased’ occurring in Section 283(1)(c) of the Act is that an interest however slight or bare possibility of the interest or even an interest dependent upon remote contingencies is sufficient to entitle a person to oppose the Will and to intervene in the matter of the application for probate and Letters of Administration and to call upon the propounder of the Will to prove it in solemn form in his presence, and such a person has a proper locus standi to come into Court and ask that the probate or the grant of Letters of Administration be revoked. Following the aforesaid Patna view even the Delhi High Court in the case of M/s. Indian Associates and Calcutta High Court in the case of Parimal Kumar Das (supra) have also taken the same view as with regard to scope of Section 283 of Indian Succession Act.

7. As noted above, the Will in question for which the probate proceedings was filed by the petitioner Saroj Devi claiming to be the sole beneficiary under the Will was executed by Late Bhagwat Nath Tiwari. The case of the petitioner that as a matter of fact Smt. Shanti Mishra, the intervener, was definitely borne as a daughter of Late Bhagwat Nath Tiwari but had lost her status after being adopted as a daughter by Kamal Nath Tiwari and thus would