Sardari Lal Vs Bishan Dass & Ors. (Supreme Court of India)
Supreme Court Reiterates: A Registered Will Is Not Beyond Suspicion – Propounder Must Satisfy the Court’s Judicial Conscience
The Supreme Court restored the concurrent findings of the Trial Court and the First Appellate Court, holding that the mere registration of a Will and proof of attestation do not, by themselves, establish its genuineness. The Court emphasized that where a Will is surrounded by suspicious circumstances, the burden lies on its propounder not only to prove its execution in accordance with law but also to remove every legitimate suspicion and satisfy the judicial conscience of the Court.
In the present case, the deceased had allegedly executed a registered Will in favour of distant relatives while completely excluding his widow, who was otherwise his sole Class I heir and had admittedly cared for him throughout his life. The Court found several suspicious features, including the absence of any convincing reason for disinheriting the wife, doubtful claims that the beneficiaries had rendered services to the testator, unexplained execution of the Will nearly 18 years before the testator’s death, and serious unexplained cuttings and alterations in the registration endorsement of the Will. These circumstances were never satisfactorily explained by the beneficiaries.
