Will and Succession
Querist :
Anonymous
(Querist) 26 July 2011
This query is : Resolved
I read an article in Times of India which said that a person cannot will away the entire inherited property.
My (maternal) Grandmother received a certain area of land from her father. She has a daughter (my mother) and four sons. Grandmother had also received some land from partition of the property of her husband (which has been divided among her, her daughter and four sons). Now she has prepared a will, conferring all of her property in her daughters name, and nothing for the sons and registered the same. My questions are:
1) Is the Will a valid one?
2) Can the sons challenge it on the ground that grandmothers property (one inherited from her father and that from her husband) has to be equally divided among her daughter and four sons?
3)One of the witnesses to the will is the daughter's major son. Is such a witness viable in law?
Please advise.
Raj Kumar Makkad
(Expert) 26 July 2011
1. No.
2. They can agitate only about ancestral property in the hands of their mother but cannot challenge the property received to her by way of partition.
3. Yes.
Querist :
Anonymous
(Querist) 26 July 2011
Thankyou for the prompt reply Sir.
But the ancestral property has been sold now and with that money she has bought an apartment, can the sons contest right over that apartment?
The apartment has been jointly purchased in the name of my grandmother and her daughter (i.e., my mother).
Devajyoti Barman
(Expert) 26 July 2011
Yes they may claim for accounts but not exactly the flat.
Dr. Jyothi Vishwanath
(Expert) 27 July 2011
1. Since the grandmother has inherited some property, she has all the rights to make a will with respect to that property. She is absolute owner of such property under Section 14 of Hindu Succession Act, 1956.
2. The sons can challenge the will only if she has inherited the property after the year 2005 when the amendment to Hindu Succession Act was made. If she has inherited it before 2005, then it cannot be challenged by the sons.
3. There is no problem regarding the witness.
R.Ramachandran
(Expert) 27 July 2011
The answer to your query is as under:
1. The property received by your grand mother from her father is her personal property and as such she can dispose it of in whatever manner that she likes, nobody can object to it. If in her wisdom and wish she had given that property entirely to her daughter, she has every right to do it. No challenge can lie to her action.
2. The property received by her from partition of the property of her husband (which has been divided among her, her daughter and four sons). The portion that fell to her share belongs to her as her personal property. As indicated in paragraph 1, being her personal property she can do anything that she likes to do with the property. Nobody can challenge / object to the same.
In view of the above -
(1) The Will is a valid one?
(2) If at all there is to be any challenge the sons can challenge the same NOT on the ground that grandmothers property (one inherited from her father and that from her husband) has to be equally divided among her daughter and four sons,
BUT on the ground of undue influence, pressure, coercion, fraud etc?
If the Will is a registered one, even that challenge will dissipate.
(3) Witness by daughter's major son will not render the Will invalid.
DEFENSE ADVOCATE.-firmaction@g
(Expert) 27 July 2011
Articles are written by non legal persons and hence they generalise.
There are so many factors in litigation and can not be one way route.
The best way it form a private trust , transfer all the properties to trust in this manner you can avoid all problems.
Querist :
Anonymous
(Querist) 27 July 2011
Thankyou all.
Now, if the sons challenge the validity of the will on the ground of undue influence, coercion etc. after my grandmother's death. How can the daughter go about in contesting her case and proving the validity of the will.
R.Ramachandran
(Expert) 27 July 2011
Please indicate whether the WILL was registered or not.
