VIKAS SINGH Vs. DEVESH PRATAP SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition under Section 278 of the Indian Succession Act (in short 'the Act1) for grant of Letters of Administration of the Will of Smt. Kamleshwari Devi, a resident of Boring Canal Road, Patna. The petition was earlier registered as Testamentary Case No. 3 of 1991. After the Objector entered caveat it was converted into a suit and re -registered as Testamentary Suit No. 3 of 1996.

(2.) The case of the petitioners, who are the grand sons of Smt. Kamleshwari Devi (hereinafter called the testatrix) and beneficiaries of the disposition, is that the testatrix was the absolute owner of land bearing plot Nos. 172,173, 174,175 of khata Nos. 115/588 and 14 of village Dujra, Thana Digha (now known as Boring Canal Road within Budha Colony Police Station, Patna town), purchased by her from her streedhan on 3.6.53. After the purchase, she got her name mutated in the revenue records. From her savings and streedhan she constructed a double -storied house which was numbered as holding No. 494/414 B in municipal records. She paid land revenue and municipal taxes to State of Bihar and the Patna Municipal Corporation. On 22.8.86 she executed her last Will at her aforesaid residence in the presence of her relatives and the attesting witnesses, namely, Dr. Birendra Prasad Sinha and Dr. Vijayee Singh. The attesting witnesses are also close relatives being respectively the grand son -in -law and husband of the niece of the testatrix. The husband of the testatrix Bisheshwar Prasad Narain Singh died on 31.1.87. The testatrix also died soon after on 31.3.87. The petitioners along with their father performed the last rites and Shradh. After the death of the testatrix, the petitioners came in possession of the house and the land, got their names mutated in the records of the State and the Patna Municipal Corporation and are paying land revenue and taxes to them.

(3.) Caveat was filed by Devesh Pratap Singh objecting to the grant of the Letters of Administration. It is worth mentioning here that the testatrix had two sons, namely, Suresh Pratap Singh and Devesh Pratap Singh and a daughter, namely, Smt. Abha Singh, the petitioners herein are the sons of Suresh Pratap Singh. Considering that the objector being son was a direct heir and had heritable interest in the estate of the testator, his locus standi thus not being questioned, caveat was allowed and the proceedings was converted into suit, as indicated at the outset. At the stage of evidence, he examined 7 witnesses including himself, and also produced some documents.