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Table of contents
Biographical note
Excerpt
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Law relating to Wills has evoked curiosity amongst Judges, lawyers and law students alike. This book offers exhaustive commentary on principles governing this law and illustrates them with contemporary case laws. The book does not contain many judicial authorities of colonial period which have lost relevance in current times, but it does examine the relevant pronouncements.
The book discusses concepts which are fundamental to exercise of testamentary jurisdiction, in detail which often engages courts. Four chapters elaborate on law relating to execution and proof of Will. Three chapters are devoted to discussing law relating to grant of probate and letters of administration. Concept of revocation of Will and revocation of probate and letters of administration has been discussed in one chapter each.
Other aspects of law, which do not much invite much attention of courts like construction of Will, jurisdiction of court, powers and duties of executors and administrators, void bequest, vesting of legacy, contingent bequest, conditional bequest etc. have also received their due share in the book.
Authors have discussed novel concepts like ‘Living Will’ in this book.
Law relating to Wills has evoked curiosity amongst Judges, lawyers and law students alike. This book offers exhaustive commentary on principles governing this law and illustrates them with contemporary case laws. The book does not contain many judicial authorities of colonial period which have lost relevance in current times, but it does examine the relevant pronouncements.
The book discusses concepts which are fundamental to exercise of testamentary jurisdiction, in detail which often engages courts. Four chapters elaborate on law relating to execution and proof of Will. Three chapters are devoted to discussing law relating to grant of probate and letters of administration. Concept of revocation of Will and revocation of probate and letters of administration has been discussed in one chapter each.
Other aspects of law, which do not much invite much attention of courts like construction of Will, jurisdiction of court, powers and duties of executors and administrators, void bequest, vesting of legacy, contingent bequest, conditional bequest etc. have also received their due share in the book.
Authors have discussed novel concepts like ‘Living Will’ in this book.
Anupam Srivastava graduated in law in 1991 and has been practicing civil law in Delhi since then. Testamentary jurisdiction is one of his practice areas, whose experience motivated him to co-author this book.
Besides being a keen litigator, he has an academic persona and has authored/edited the following books: also
1. Mulla’s Code of Civil Procedure 16th edition, published in 2002 by Lexis Nexis;
2. Legal Ways of Money Recovery-A Handbook, published in 2004 by Lexis Nexis;
3. A Handbook on Real Estate Investment-A legal perspective, published in 2007 and 2011 published by Manupatra;
4. Code of Civil Procedure 1908, published in 2010 by Manupatra; and
5. Guide to Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, published in 2014 by Wolters Kluwer.
Monika Srivastava is a Masters in Law. She graduated from Campus Law Centre, Delhi University in the year 1991. She performs the roles of a lawyer, Meditator, Author and a Law teacher with ease.
She practices in courts at Delhi and is a trained mediator with Delhi High Court Mediation Centre.
She is a visiting faculty at Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies (VIPS) affiliated with Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University
She has authored the following books:
1. Code of Civil Procedure 1908; published in 2010 by Manupatra;
2. Guide to Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013; published in 2014 by Wolters Kluwer; and
3. Code of Civil Procedure; published in 2018 by TAXMANN
She also assisted in editing of 16th edition of Mulla’s Code of Civil Procedure 1908
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I wish to dedicate this book to my departed parents
Smt. Sheela and Shri P D Srivastava
For all their tireless efforts towards instilling the right values in me and for providing me with a good education
Anupam Srivastava
To my Baba, my parents, my husband, my children and family and friends who helped me in time of distress…..Thank you All
Monika S
Anupam Srivastava
Anupam Srivastava graduated in law in 1991 and has been practicing civil law in Delhi since then. Testamentary jurisdiction is one of his practice areas, whose experience motivated him to co-author this book.
Besides being a keen litigator, he has an academic persona and has authored/edited the following books: also
1. Mulla’s Code of Civil Procedure 16th edition, published in 2002 by Lexis Nexis;
2. Legal Ways of Money Recovery- A Handbook, published in 2004 by Lexis Nexis;
3. A Handbook on Real Estate Investment-A legal perspective, published in 2007 and 2011 published by Manupatra;
4. Code of Civil Procedure 1908, published in 2010 by Manupatra; and
5. Guide to Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, published in 2014 by Wolters Kluwer.
Monika Srivastava
Monika Srivastava is a Masters in Law. She graduated from Campus Law Centre, Delhi University in the year 1991. She performs the roles of a lawyer, Meditator, Author and a Law teacher with ease.
She practices in courts at Delhi and is a trained mediator with Delhi High Court Mediation Centre.
She is a visiting faculty at Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies (VIPS) affiliated with Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University
She has authored the following books:
1. Code of Civil Procedure 1908; published in 2010 by Manupatra;
2. Guide to Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013; published in 2014 by Wolters Kluwer; and
3. Code of Civil Procedure; published in 2018 by TAXMANN
She also assisted in editing of 16th edition of Mulla’s Code of Civil Procedure 1908
Law relating to Wills is one of the most interesting and perplexing branches of law. It is interesting for the reason that it contains the thoughts, desires and wishes of a person in regard to distribution of his assets after his demise and perplexing for the reason that the person who could have thrown best light on it is no longer alive. Hence, the cumbersome burden of interpreting the words and state of mind of the testator, at the time of execution of the Will is statutorily imposed on the courts.
Despite death being a universal fact, the practice of execution of the Will is not a common practice in India. In the absence of a Will, the succession to the estate of a deceased would be as per the succession law applicable to the deceased. Intestate succession of Hindus, Sikhs Jains and Buddhists would be governed by Hindu Succession Act, 1956; Muslims would be governed by Sharia and intestate succession of Christians, Jews, Parsis etc. would be governed by the Indian Succession Act 1925, (ISA).
This book is about testamentary succession and has been divided into sixteen chapters; each chapter is topic centric and deals with all the statutory provisions which are applicable to the relevant issue. The scheme of the book is discussed in the prologue and the readers are requested to go through it to have a better understanding of the flow of the book.
The work on this book started in early 2019 and was completed in 2021. Efforts have been made to incorporate every worthy judgment reported till publication, however, if on account of oversight any worthwhile judgment has been missed, it is regretted.
We were assisted in the research of this book by a team of young law students whom we would like to acknowledge. We especially thank Ms. Sarita Pandey, Shri Shubhansh Thakur and Shri Shikher Goyal who assisted us in this project for the duration of almost the entire period we worked on it. We were also assisted intermittently by other law students namely Ms. Vidyul Dayal, Ms. Rishika Agarwal, Shri Bharat Khurana, Shri Chaitanya Sharma, Shri Ujjwal Malhotra and Shri Aditya Raj.
We would like to specially acknowledge the efforts of another law student, Ms. Stuti Srivastava who helped us with the editorial work of this book. She went through the manuscript minutely, reviewed and proofread its content.
We also wish to thank Bloomsbury for publishing this title. We would like to thank Shri Toby Thomas for agreeing to publish the book on a subject close to our heart.
We would also like to thank Ms. Nikita Jain who was coordinating with us for this book.
We are also thankful to our daughter Khushi for supporting us in this endeavour.
Anupam Srivastava
Monika Srivastava
Chapter 1 Introduction to Testamentary Succession.
Chapter 2 Person making the Will and the property to be bequeathed
Chapter 3 Execution of unprivileged Will and Codicil
Chapter 4 Execution of privileged Will and Codicil
Chapter 5 Proof of Will in Court of law
Chapter 6 Suspicious circumstances
Chapter 7 Revocation, alteration and revival of Will
Chapter 8 Construction of Will
Chapter 9 Introduction to Probate & Letters of Administration
Chapter 11 Letters of Administration
Chapter 12 Revocation of probate and letters of administration
Chapter 13 Jurisdiction of court in granting and revoking probate etc
Chapter 14 Power and duties of executors and administrators.