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Kalyani (home maker)     19 August 2024

Unregistered fake will with forged signature - legal remedy

I am a 60-year-old woman, and I have a 55-year-old brother. We are the only siblings of our parents. My father's property consists of his own earnings and inheritance from his father and grandfather. Until 1987, all properties were purchased in my father's name. My father passed away in 2021 due to COVID-19 without transferring or bequeathing his properties. When I approached my brother to claim my share of the property, he initially refused and now claims that our father wrote a will in 1986, leaving the entire property to him. This will is completely fake and unregistered. Although my father was uneducated, he was able to sign his name. Upon investigating with friends and family, it appears that my brother forged my father's signature with the help of an artist skilled in imitating signatures. He added one of our distant uncles and another cousin as witnesses, who signed the document.

How can I prove that the will is fake and that my father did not sign it? People say unregistered will are acceptable by law and I have no option. Please help me



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 10 Replies

T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate (Advocate)     19 August 2024

You don't have to prove the Will as fake or forged.

You file a suit for partition demanding your share out of your father's property.

Let him come to the court with his Will and prove it, which can be challenged properly.

kavksatyanarayana (subregistrar/supdt.(retired))     19 August 2024

You can file a partition suit.  If you have your father's signature on any paper it will be useful proof that your father's signature was forged in the Will and you can defend on that ground in the court.  And your brother shall prove that the will was executed in his favour.

Kalyani (home maker)     19 August 2024

Thank you sir.

Yes, sir. My father signed and executed a document in 1987. His signature is on this registered paper. I hope this is accepted by the court.

T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate (Advocate)     19 August 2024

If you admit then you may have to face the consequences accordingly, however you may consult a local lawyer with all the papers for more proper opinion.

Advocate Bhartesh goyal (advocate)     20 August 2024

File partition suit and claim your share.Let your brother come and prove will.

Kalyani (home maker)     20 August 2024

Originally posted by : T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate
If you admit then you may have to face the consequences accordingly, however you may consult a local lawyer with all the papers for more proper opinion.

Ok sir. What I meant was the signature proof of my father as a reply to Mr. Sathyanarayanan sir.
"If you have your father's signature on any paper it will be useful proof that your father's signature was forged in the Will and you can defend on that ground in the court."
A property was sold in 1987 and his signature is on this document. 
However, the will is completely fake. 

 

Dr. MPS RAMANI Ph.D.[Tech.] (Scientist/Engineer)     20 August 2024

You file a partition suit. Your brother will come to the court and contest on the basis of the will. A will is valid only if it attested by two witnesses who have to state that the will was signed by your father in their presence and that they had seen him signing. The court will call the witnesses to the court and your lawyer can cross-examine him as in a criminal case. The court has to be satisfied with the evidence. Are the winesses available to come to the court? If the witnesses do not appear before the court the case of your brother will fail. Witnesses averment in the court is more important than calling signature experts to the court to prove that the signature was forged. Most often the winesses will fail to appear in the court, if the signature was forged, because they will be liable to criminal prsecution if they give false evidence.

Kalyani (home maker)     21 August 2024

Thank you sir for this valuable information. I will inform the witnesses through my relatives that I will take criminal action if they give false testimony which is punishable by law. I don't know this point.

T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate (Advocate)     22 August 2024

You cannot warn the relatives of the consequences of any criminal law because it will be considered as an act of intimidation or threat that you pose to them in order to put pressure on them to not to let in the evidence against you, and it will backfire resulting into legal consequences to you, hence better proceed as per law in the civil suit itself. 

Dr. MPS RAMANI Ph.D.[Tech.] (Scientist/Engineer)     24 August 2024

If you warn the alleged witnesses that they will have to face the consequences if they give false evidence. it will not be intimidation. If you tell them that you will get them beaten up that will be intimidation. Again I say that authentication of a will is not done by comparing with specimen signature or otherwise verifying the genuineness of the signature etc. A will is valid only if it attested by 2 witneses and the witnesses will be summoned to the court. In some cases, the witnesses may be dead or their whereabouts may not be known. In such an event the burden of proof of the genuineness is on the one who has interest in it. And it is a lengthy procedure.


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