KALYANIKUTTY AMMA Vs. GOURIKUTTY AMMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal from an appeal from an order of the learned District Judge in Trichur refusing letters of administration to the Appellant in respect of the estate of her deceased husband, R.P. Nathan, on the sole ground that he had no jurisdiction to make a grant. The Respondent is the mother of the deceased and she supports the Appellant in her contention that the refusal was wrong.

(2.) R .P. Nathan died intestate in Malaya early in March 1949 and at the time of his death had "a fixed place of abode" in the Chittur Village within the jurisdiction of the District Judge of Trichur. He, however, left behind him no assets in this country, movable or immovable and the short question that arises for consideration is whether in the absence of Indian assets it is possible to make a grant under the Indian Succession Act, 1925.

(3.) THAT section cannot be understood as dispensing with the necessity for the existence of Indian assets before probate or letters of administration can issue from an Indian Court. What it does is to detail the conditions under which a particular Judge will have jurisdiction to grant probate or letters of administration in respect of the Indian assets, and say that they may be granted if "the testator or intestate, as the case may be, at the time of his decease had a fixed place of abode, or any property, movable or immovable within the jurisdiction of the Judge".