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Apurva (pLANNER)     17 May 2018

Old notary will versus latest will on plain paper with signature of testator

My father passed away on March 29th , 2018. In 2017, he made a will on plain paper with his signature and stamp alongwith signature of two witnesses ( neighbors). However, he also made an old notarised will in 2013 which is with my dad's sisters. Will you please guide me on which 'will' will be valid? The new will on the plain paper or old notarized will.


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 6 Replies

Adv Deepak Joshi +917017821512 (Advocate)     17 May 2018

A Will is a legal declaration of the intention of a person (testator) with respect to his property or estate, which he desires to take effect after his death. The following essentials of a Will must be kept in mind:

(i) The Will must be executed by the testator, i.e., the person making the Will (or by some other person in the testator’s presence and under his directions; if it is not possible for the testator to affix his signature, he may also put his thumb impression);

(ii) The signature should be placed in such as manner that it appears that it was intended to give effect to the Will;

(iii) The Will should be signed by the testator in the presence of two witnesses (other than the beneficiaries under a Will), and the witnesses must also attest (i.e., sign).

In India, registration of Wills is not compulsory. A Will is not a compulsorily registerable document under section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908, (Act), and according to section 18 (e) it is the testator’s choice as to whether he wishes to register it. There is no stamp duty payable. But if one chooses to register a Will with the applicable registrar/sub-registrar of assurances, the registration provides evidence that the proper parties had appeared before the registering officer and the latter had attested the same after ascertaining their identity. Once a Will is registered, it is placed in the safe custody of the Registrar and cannot be tampered with, destroyed, mutilated or stolen. However, non-registration of a Will does not lead to any inference against its genuineness. It doesn’t have to be executed before a notary public.

Please feel free to cal for any help at 9456777600

 

Apurva (pLANNER)     17 May 2018

thanks for the reply. However, I am confused which of the two wills will be valid- the old one or the latest one on plain paper?

Kumar Doab (FIN)     17 May 2018

The last valid WILL prevails...

Apurva (pLANNER)     18 May 2018

The latest is on plain paper with my dad's signature and two other witnesses. So, do you mean the one one the plain paper is valid? The last one is not on notary.

 

Also, the oe on the plain paper is in his own handwriting.

 

Kumar Doab (FIN)     18 May 2018

It is not mandatory to register or notarize the WILL.

The WILL should just be valid.

And LAST VALID WILL prevails.

The testator must have narated in WILL that IT is the last WILL.


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