NEVILEE P. MEHTA Vs. DOLLY MEHTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SUIT is for issue of letters of administration. The plaintiff herein filed O. P. No. 173 of 1972 for the issue of Letters of Administration in regard to the estate of his father Pheroze Mehta, who died intestate. As the son of the deceased, the plaintiff would be entitled to claim the entire estate, the assets of which would not exceed in the aggregate the sum of Rs. 88,581.06 and the net amount of the assets after deducting all items allowable under law would be Rs. 76,981.06. Undertaking to duly administer the property and credits of the said Pheroze Mehta, the prayer for Letters of Administration was made.

(2.) THE wife of the said Pheroze Mehta entered caveat, whereupon the said original petition was converted into a Testamentary Original Suit. In the written statement she contends that the late Pheroze Mehta died leaving behind not only the plaintiff, his son, but also the defendant, his widow, who was lawfully married to him at New Delhi on 16th April 1963. They lived as husband and wife to the knowledge of the plaintiff, who was well aware of the said marriage and treated the defendant as his step -mother. It is therefore contended that the plaintiff could not repudiate the status of the defendant and was estopped from doing so. The defendant submits that the plaintiff has wilfully suppressed many facts in a desperate attempt to walk away with the entire estate left by her late husband, that her marriage with her late husband is a valid one and that as a widow she is entitled to claim his assets, along with the step -son, the plaintiff. The defendant also submits that the plaintiff who is a third party to the marriage cannot pray for the nullity of the marriage in these testamentary proceedings.

(3.) ON these pleadings, the following issues were set for trial.