PADMA BEDI Vs. JOGINDER SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant is aggrieved by the judgment of the learned additional District Judge, Delhi, dated 31-1-1997, granting probate in respect of the Will dated 15-1-1986 of the deceased Shri Gainda Singh Bedi, with a copy of the Will annexed thereto, which entitled respondent No. 1, Shri Joginder Singh Bedi, the executor under the Will, to administer the estate of the deceased.

(2.) The deceased testator, Shri Gainda Singh Bedi, was a member of the Higher Judicial Service and retired as District and Sessions Judge, Hissar, in the year 1996. Appellant is the semi literate widow of the deceased. Appellant assails the impugned judgment primarily on the ground that the bequest made in the said Will was unnatural, inasmuch as, it made no provision for the residence of the appellant, who was having no source of income and the deceased bequeathed the only house he possessed to his sons, viz. respondents 1 and 2. Appellant urges that there was no evidence of any strained or embittered relations between the deceased testator and the appellant and there was no conceivable cause for exclusion of the appellant from inheritance of the house, which was the prime asset of the deceased. Learned Counsel urges that, in the normal course, wife would be the first beneficiary of the deceased's estate in the absence of strained relations.

(3.) Learned Counsel for the appellant also placed reliance on Kalyan Singh v. Chhoti, AIR 1990 SC 396, and Ram Pyari v. Bhagwant & Others, AIR 1990 SC 1742, in support of his contention that exclusion of the wife without disclosure of any reason or circumstance shrouded the bequest with suspicious circumstances and raised doubts on the authenticity of the Will.