ANTHONIAMMAL Vs. APPAVU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Disposal of MFA.No.870/97 will resolve the dispute in CRP.672/1997.

(2.) As per the judgment impugned in MFA.870/97, the application of the appellant under S.213 of the Indian Succession Act for probate of a Will has been dismissed. Few facts are necessary to dispose of this appeal.

(3.) The appellant is the legatee of a Will executed by her father on 8.3.1958. Her father died on 1.12.1959. The parties belong to Vaniya Christian in Palakkad. According to her they are following Hindu law on succession. So the Will did not require a probate. So no steps in that regard had been taken. The appellant had been married away to a place in Tamilnadu and was permanently residing there. The property that she had got in terms of the Will. According to her, were being managed by her mother and brother. While so in the year 1997, the Taluk Land Board, Chittur served a notice on the appellant's brother on a suo motu proceedings, TLB S.M.No.211/1997 requiring him to surrender excess land in his possession in terms of the provisions contained in Act 1 of 1964. Knowing that as the properties stood bequeathed in favour of the appellant, she filed a claim petition contending that 10.03 acres of land covered by the suo motu proceedings before the Land Board really belonged to her and was in her possession and should have been exempted. This claim was put up based on the above mentioned Will. The Taluk Land Board accepted the Will, though only a copy was produced before it. No original of the Will was produced before the Taluk Land Board. Aggrieved by the Order, the State took up the matter in revision before this Court as CRP.561/1983. This court set aside the order of the Taluk Land Board on the ground that the parties being Christians, the Will could have been acted upon and relied on, only if it had been probated. By a judgment of this Court, the appellant was directed to get the Will probated, if she wanted to rely on it. This Court thus allowed the CRP filed by the State, on 22.2.1991.