LAXMI BAI Vs. A CHANDRAVATI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Should the Court, if goaded, arrogate to itself the role of an expert and compare the disputed writings of a person with other writings which are admitted or proved to be his writings and solely relying on such personal comparison form its own opinion and arrive at a conclusion on the question of identification of handwritings this is the moot question that arises for our consideration in this Letters Patent Appeal.

(2.) Plaintiff is the appellant and the defendant is the respondent (for the sake of convenience, they may be referred to as plaintiff and defendant in this judgment). The parties are relations as will appear from the genealogical table set forth below :

(3.) Plaintiff's case is that the testatrix Amaji was the daughter of V. Kanheya. The latter had a sister called Amudu who was the grandmother of the plaintiff (i.e. father's mother). The property mentioned in Schedule 'A' was purchased by Amudu and Amaji in the year 1940 and each of them had 8 annas interest in the said property. Schedule 'B' property exclusively belonged to Amaji. As Amaji had no children, she had lot of love and affection towards the plaintiff and her brother Bhaskar Rao (late husband of the defendant). She (Amaji) on 17-2-1957 executed the will in question in favour of the plaintiff and her brother Bhaskar Rao in respect of her 8 annas interest of Schedule 'A' property and the entire interest of Schedule 'B' property. According to the terms of the will, the plaintiff and her brother Bhaskar Rao would get the said properties after the death of Amaji. It was further mentioned in the will that if any of the legatees died without leaving any son or daughter surviving on the death of such legatee, the property would go to other legatee. Bhaskar Rao died on 19-9-1974 leaving without any issue behind him. It is the claim of the plaintiff that under the terms of the will her brother having died without any issue, she alone is entitled to the entire property covered under the will after Amaji who had died on 11-8-1957. After the death of Bhaskar Rao the plaintiff wanted to record her name in respect of the properties but it could not be possible in absence of grant of letters of administration. In the premises stated above, she filed the application under Sections 276 and 278 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 (in brief the Succession Act) for grant of letters of administration in her favour in respect of the will in question.