YOHANNAN THOMAS JOHN Vs. SHEKHAR AGARWAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BOTH these Chamber Summonses are taken out by two daughters of the deceased who have sought to challenge the Will of the deceased by withdrawing the consent purported to have been given by them on the ground that it was obtained under misrepresentation and/or under duress.

(2.) THE deceased Ranchoddas Hiralal Agrawal died on 7th May 1986. He is stated to have left behind his last Will and Testament dated 3rd December 1985. The Plaintiff is the executor of the Will. He is not a beneficiary. The deceased left behind three sons and four daughters. The properties are stated to have been bequeathed to two sons. The other son and the four daughters have been disinherited. The son, who is disinherited, has filed a Caveat. The two sons, who have been bequeathed the estate of the deceased, have filed two separate consent Affidavits affirmed before the Associate/Assistant Master, High Court, Mumbai. The four daughters have neither been even mentioned in the Will nor have been mentioned in the Petition for probate as the heirs and legal representatives of the deceased. Only three sons are shown as heirs in the Petition. Consequently, initially two of the sons Suresh and Subodh filed consent Affidavits on 13th March 1994. One son Shekhar challenged the Will upon the citation being issued.

(3.) THE Affidavits of the four daughters, Aruna, Karuna, Uma and Asha have been filed on four different dates; 5th November 1995, 6th January 1996, 22nd December 1995 and 14th February 1996, respectively. The 'consent' of these heirs required to be filed in this Court is not necessarily to be affirmed before an officer of the Court entitled to administer an oath as an Affidavit under any rule in that behalf. All the four Affidavits are shown to be notarised in Mumbai. All the four daughters have signed the Affidavits in Mumbai. Two of the daughters lived in Mumbai and two lived in Canada. Even the daughters, who lived in Canada, have signed the Affidavits in Mumbai. These Affidavits are annexed to the Affidavit of the Plaintiff affirming that they were signed by all the daughters in his presence and are notarised. They are marked Exhibits A, B, C and D, respectively to the said Affidavit. The docket of the Affidavit of the Plaintiff does not show what kind of Affidavit it is. It only shows that it is Affidavit of the Plaintiff, affirmed on 22nd March 1996 before the Associate/Assistant Master, High Court, Mumbai.