Validity of a Will executed during marriage does not fall under Family Court jurisdiction if it pertains to civil disputes over property ownership.

JUDGMENT

The original petition has been filed challenging Ext.P7 order, whereby the court below held that the suit is maintainable before the civil court and that the issue does not fall within the jurisdiction of the Family Court. The facts required for adjudication are as follows:

2. The petitioners are the wife and children of the deceased Asokan. The respondent is the sister of Asokan. The suit was filed by the respondent seeking to declare her title over the plaint schedule properties on the strength of a Will executed by deceased Asokan. The petitioners submit that the Will was executed during the pendency of matrimonial appeals before this Court. It is also submitted that a maintenance case was pending during that time. It is hence contended that, since the Will relates to the properties of one of the parties to the marriage and the same had been dealt with during the pendency of the matrimonial appeals and maintenance case, the issue is one relating to a matrimonial dispute and has to be tried and disposed of by the Family Court.

3. The court below considered the issue and held that the suit does not fall within the purview of Section 7 of the Family Courts Act, 1984 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’).

Section 7 of the Act reads thus:

7. Jurisdiction.—

(1) Subject to the other provisions of this Act, a Family Court shall—

(a) have and exercise all the jurisdiction exercisable by any district court or any subordinate civil court under any law for the time being in force in respect of suits and proceedings of the nature referred to in the Explanation; and (b) be deemed, for the purposes of exercising such jurisdiction under such law, to be a district court or, as the case may be, such subordinate civil court for the area to which the jurisdiction of the Family Court extends.

Explanation.—The suits and proceedings referred to in this sub-section are suits and proceedings of the following nature, namely:—

(a) a suit or proceeding between the parties to a marriage for a decree of nullity of marriage (declaring the marriage to be null and void or, as the case may be, annulling the marriage) or restitution of conjugal rights or judicial separation or dissolution of marriage;

(b) a suit or proceeding for a declaration as to the validity of a marriage or as to the matrimonial status of any person;

(c) a suit or proceeding between the parties to a marriage with respect to the property of the parties or of either of them;

(d) a suit or proceeding for an order or injunction in circumstance arising out of a marital relationship;

(e) a suit or proceeding for a declaration as to the legitimacy of any person;

(f) a suit or proceeding for maintenance;

(g) a suit or proceeding in relation to the guardianship of the person or the custody of, or access to, any minor. (2) Subject to the other provisions of this Act, a Family Court shall also have and exercise—

(a) the jurisdiction exercisable by a Magistrate of the first class under Chapter IX (relating to order for maintenance of wife, children and parents) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974); and (b) such other jurisdiction as may be conferred on it by any other enactment.

4. The suits and proceedings which are to be decided by a Family Court have been enumerated in Explanations (a) to (g) to Section 7 of the Act. The question regarding the validity of a Will executed by one of the parties in favour of a stranger to the marriage does not come within any of the items enumerated in the Explanations. The court below considered this aspect and found that the suit is not one between the parties to a marriage and that a suit between one of the spouses and the relatives o