MARIA MARTA VAZ Vs. JACINTA PEREIRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. With the consent of the parties, Petition is disposed of finally.

(2.) The Petition challenges an order dtd. 15/10/2022 passed by the Civil Judge Senior Division at Mapusa in Inventory Proceedings Case No.154/2007/C/A whereby the Civil Court has re-opened the said Inventory Proceedings, purporting to exercise powers under Sec. 446 of the Goa Succession, Special Notaries And Inventory Proceeding Act, 2012 ('The Act'). The second order which is impugned herein is an order of the District Court dtd. 5/4/2025 by which an Appeal filed by the Petitioner against an application for declaring a Will dtd. 15/6/2007 of the deceased Blandina Fernandes to be a nullity, has been dismissed; the trial Court, i.e. the Inventory Court, without holding an inquiry, had held by its order dtd. 29/5/2024 that the Petitioner had failed to prove that the said Will was void or a nullity.

(3.) The aforementioned Inventory Proceedings was filed in the year 2007 to allot the estate of late Victor Sebastiao Fernandes, the estate leaver. In that Inventory Proceedings, the wife of Victor, Blandina Fernandes was arrayed as an interested party, being moiety, having a share of half of the undivided estate. Victor and Blandina had four children, namely, (i) Jacinta (Respondent No.1), (ii) Agnes (Respondent No.2), (ii) John Edmund Fernandes (Respondent No.3), his wife Francisca (Respondent No.4) and (iv) Maria Martha Vaz, who is the Petitioner herein, married to Agnelo Vaz.