SURENDRA PAL Vs. SARASWATI ARORA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is by special leave against the grant of a probate of the will of Bhim Sain Arora dated February 8, 1961 in favour of his wife Saraswati. The deceased who had lost his first wife on April 14, 1959 had advertised in September 1960 for a wife in the matrimonial column of Sunday Tribune of Ambala. The advertisement is as follows:

(2.) After the will was executed Bhim Sain lived with Saraswati for nearly 3 years before his death on January 18, 1964. It may here be mentioned that Bhim Sain had by his first wife four daughters and one son. Of them two daughters were married to persons in affluent circumstances, the third daughter Shanta 22 years old had not been married by the time Bhim Sain got married and the fourth daughter Rita, a minor of 13 years old, was studying in Loreto Convent School at Simla. The son Surendra Pal Arora was not living with his father at that time. Both the Courts have held that the relationship between the son, Shanta and Rita on the one hand and the father on the other were not good so much so that the two daughters were in fact living with their brother Surendra Pal - the first appellant.

(3.) After the death of his father the first appellant Surendra Pal wrote a letter to the respondent Saraswati in which he said that the respondent had mentioned about a will made by his father in her favour regarding which he expressed ignorance and wanted to see it. If there was in fact no will he wanted "an amicable partition of considerable properties and assets" belonging to his father. Thereafter correspondence took place between the solicitors of the parties which ultimately resulted in the respondent filing an application on September 14, 1964, for the issue of a probate testimento-cum-annexo. A caveat had earlier been filed by the first appellant and the matter was contested. Rita, who was then unmarried and living with her maternal uncle Sikri, who was also her guardian ad litem, did not contest the will but she appears to have made in an attempt before the Appellate Court at a late stage to file an appeal. Her application was, however, dismissed.