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cchs1962 (society)     29 January 2014

Will

Kindly let me know is Will to be signed by the witnesses compulsory? My friend's grandfather made a will in favor of his father and the will is written by my friend's grandfather in his own handwriting and signed too. In the will he has made my friends father the successor of the house in which they live; the will is not signed by any witnesses. Is will legally helpful to my friend's father? 

If anyone can pls. share with us the reportable judgments of Hon'able Supreme Court of India in context of Un-witnessed Will, then we will be highly obliged.



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 6 Replies

Rama chary Rachakonda (Secunderabad/Highcourt practice watsapp no.9989324294 )     29 January 2014

Twop Wittnesses signs and their addresses arecompuslory on WILL.

Laxmi Kant Joshi (Advocate )     29 January 2014

For legal value the will should be attested by the two witnesses with their complete sign and address .

Biswanath Roy (Advocate)     29 January 2014

In a Will  witness name and address is a must although it is not mandatory.  Witness of the will evidences that in his presence the testator subscribed and sealed the will and the testator signed in his presence. which makes the will a valid one and has no discrepancy in it..

Advocate Ravinder (Advocate/Attorney)     29 January 2014

As per law two witnesses are mandatory.  But there are citations that atleast one witness is enough.  If there are no witnesses at all, atleast it should be registered will.  To some extent it will work out. 

Biswanath Roy (Advocate)     30 January 2014

I reiterate my posted opinion made earlier. Signature of the witnesses upon a will is not mandatary.  Because the term mandatary means " one who acts gratuitously but is entitled to be indemnified for expenses incurred in carrying out the mandate " .  NOW LET US SEE WHAT IS MANDATE which is to be carried out by the witness of a Will ?  Here we see the definition of the word MANDATE according to legal parlance and Roman & Civil Law  is " a written command given by a Principal to an Agent specifically a commission or contract by which one person ( the mandator ) requests some one  ( the mandatory ) to perform some service gratuitously, the commission becoming effective when the mandatory agrees".  Besides, I NEED MENTION FURTHER a provision in a statute is said to be mandatory when disobedience to it or want of exact compliance to it, will make the act done under the statute absolutely void. According to such explanatory position of the term  " Mandatory " I totally disagree that the witnesses required in a Will is not mandatory but it minimizes the questions of challenging its genuineness before the court of law at the time of taking probate more particularly  to prove that the signature of the testator  was taken not under duress or otherwise..

T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate (Advocate)     31 January 2014

A Will in order to become valid legally has to be witnessed by a witness in whose presence the testator has signed and sealed the Will, if not it becomes legally invalid.


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