GURMIT SINGH Vs. SAWINDER SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal has been filed against the judgment of the learned Lower Appellate Court allowing the appeal of the respondents and thereby dismissing the suit of the appellant whereby he had challenged the inheritance of respondent No.1 on the basis of a Will by the mother.

(2.) It is not disputed that the Will in dispute was a registered Will. It is also not disputed that as regards the execution of the Will the marginal witnesses and the scribe deposed clearly and categorically to the effect that deceased Mohinder Kaur had executed the Will in her free mind and without any pressure. The learned trial Court, however, took the view that there was an active partition of the respondents in so much as one of the witnesses had admitted that the respondents had gone to the Registration Authorities with the testator and the witnesses. The learned trial Court also took adverse notice of the fact that the allegation of the respondents with regard to the alleged bitterness between the appellant and his mother was not proven. Further, the learned trial Court took adverse notice of the fact that no reason was mentioned for disinheriting the appellant or in completely ignoring the daughter. The learned Lower Appellate Court, however, reversed the findings as mentioned above. The court found that the other class-I heir namely daughter not only did not challenge the Will till her death rather her son came and admitted the genuineness of the Will.

(3.) The learned Lower Appellate Court also has observed that since the Will is executed with the sole purpose of deviating from intestate succession the argument that one of the heirs has been deprived of a share cannot be stretched so far as to hobble the rights of the testator. The court also noticed that the Will was a registered document and that its execution had been duly proved by cogent testimony of the attesting witnesses as well as the scribe.