The main legal point established in the judgment is the interpretation of the testamentary instrument, specifically the will and codicil, to determine the intention of the testator in conferring an absolute estate of inheritance upon the senior widow.

Sir Shadi Lal:-

On 4th June 1918, one Babu Indarsen Singh, a talukdar of the estate of Dhaurwa situate in the Province of Oudh, died, leaving him surviving two widows, Annapurna Kuar and Balraj Kuar, and two daughters, namely, Brijraj Kuar by his deceased wife Jadunath Kuar, and Hemraj Kuar by his wife Balraj Kuar. The senior widow, Annapurna Kuar, succeeded to the entire property of her deceased husband and on 22nd November 1923, she made a will by which she devised the property in dispute to the junior widow, Balraj Kuar, for her life, and, after the latter's death, to the two daughters of her husband in equal shares as absolute owners. In June 1929, Annapurna Kuar died, and the estate left by her was claimed by the surviving widow, but her claim was resisted by the sons of Babu Indarsen Singh's daughter Brijraj Kuar. The revenue authorities, who dealt with the dispute in the. first instance, accepted the counter claim made by the sons of Brijraj Kuar; and directed that the mutation of the estate should be effected in their favour.

Thereupon, Balraj Kuar commenced, in May 1930, the present action to recover possession of the property. She founded her title upon the will made in her favour by Annapurna Kuar in November 1923, and it is common ground that she would be entitled to succeed to the estate, if Annapurna Kuar was competent to make the testamentary disposition in her favour. It is however clear that she could make the devise in question only if she had got an absolute estate from her husband.

Now, it is an undisputed fact that Babu Indarsen Singh made a will on 15th March 1899, and that it was followed by a codicil on 29th September 1910. The crucial question is whether the testator thereby conferred upon Annapurna Kuar an absolute estate in his property. The answer to the question depends upon the interpretation to be placed upon his will, which must be read along with his codicil. The parties are agreed that both these documents were executed by him, and that he was competent to do so. The trial Judge, after an elaborate discussion of the terms of both the will and the codicil, reached the conclusion that the testator gave his senior widow an absolute estate of inheritance, and that conclusion has been endorsed on appeal by a Division Bench of the Chief Court of Oudh. On this appeal preferred by the defendants, their Lordships have carefully examined the scope and effect of the various clauses contained in the will and also the codicil in the light of the arguments advanced by the learned counsel on both sides; and are not prepared to dissent from the concurrent decisions of the Courts in India.

The language of the codicil, as will be seen presently, does not create any difficulty; but the clauses of the will making dispositions of the property have given rise to a controversy between the parties. The will is couched in high-flown Urdu language, but its translation embodied in the judgment of the trial Judge was, as stated by the learned Judges of the appellate Court, "accepted to be correct for all practical purposes" by both the parties in the Courts below. The testator, after describing his property, proceeds to dispose of it as follows:

In respect of all this property I make a will according to the conditions below in favour of my high placed wife Mt. Annapurna Kuar Sahiba, daughter of Sardar Shivji Singh, for whom I have great affection and love, and who has looked upon serving me in every way and giving me satisfaction as her main duty, and has given preference to it over her comfort, health and heartfelt desires; and in future also judging from her refined and sound common sense and her far reaching and subtle intellect as well as from her genuine, artless and unadulterated affection for me, I have this strong hope that this very condition of hers in accordance with my temperament shall continue all throughout my life without any change or alteration.

1. If, God forbid, I do not have any male issue or if one is bor