SC has advice for all Hindu women without husband or heirs\u2014\u2018make will, avoid litigation\u2019<\/a><\/p>\nSection 213, Indian Succession Act<\/p>\n
The Repealing and Amending Bill is a periodic clean-up legislation used to repeal obsolete laws. However,\u00a0this time around the\u00a0Bill introduces a significant substantive change to succession law.<\/p>\n
The Bill, cleared by both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, states that \u201c(ii) section 213 shall be omitted\u201d from the Indian Succession Act.<\/p>\n
Section 213 acted as a gatekeeper for wills in certain cases. \u201cNo right as executor or legatee can be established in any Court of Justice, unless a Court of competent jurisdiction in India has granted probate of the will,\u201d the provision stated. However, this restriction was selective. It applied based on two factors: the testator\u2019s religion and geography.<\/p>\n
First, mandatory probate applied only to wills made by Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, and Parsis\u2013not to Indian Muslims or Christians. Second, the requirement applied only if the will was executed within the original civil jurisdiction of the high courts at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, or dealt with immovable property in these cities.<\/p>\n
This created a unique anomaly, and the Bill\u2019s Statement of Objects and Reasons explicitly frames the omission as correcting this discrimination. It reads: \u201cThe amendments proposed to the Act seek to attain uniformity by omission of section 213 which is discriminatory\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Probate has been central to succession battles in India, many of them high-profile ones. For instance, the Birla-Lodha battle saw the Lodha family fighting the Birla clan for control of a Rs 5,000 crore empire based on a disputed will. Similarly, the Osho case centered on allegations of a forged signature on the spiritual guru\u2019s will.<\/p>\n
By omitting Section 213, the government has removed the statutory requirement for mandatory probate in these cities.<\/p>\n
Additionally, consequential amendments to Section 370 mean that debts and securities\u2014like shares and mutual funds\u2014will also no longer be held up by the need for probate.<\/p>\n
Executors and beneficiaries in the erstwhile Presidency towns can now approach authorities, such as land registries and banks, directly with a will. They no longer need a court order to prove ownership. The change is expected to reduce costs and delays for families managing succession in these metros.<\/p>\n
However, removing mandatory probate also removes early judicial scrutiny of wills. Without probate, a will\u2019s validity is not conclusively established upfront and may be challenged later, even after assets are distributed.<\/p>\n
Even though probate is no longer mandatory, lawyers may still advise it as a strategy to prevent future\u00a0disputes. The Bill includes a savings clause, standard for such amendments. This means the repeal will apply prospectively.<\/p>\n
Rights already \u201caccrued\u201d or liabilities \u201cincurred\u201d under the old law remain untouched. Existing probates remain valid, and ongoing probate cases currently pending before the high courts will continue unaffected.<\/p>\n
(Edited by Hrishikesh Aiyer)<\/p>\n
Also Read: 160-yr-old law on wills for modern India? Uttarakhand\u2019s UCC has just copy-pasted it<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Delhi: A century-old rule that forced families in India\u2019s biggest cities to go to court before acting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,61,108781,60,174,175],"class_list":{"0":"post-207882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-indian-succession-act","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}