SWARNALATHA & ORS. Vs KALAVATHY & ORS [2022] 1 S.C.R. 847

Date of decision : 30-03-2022 | Case Number : CIVIL APPEAL/1565/2022 | Disposal Nature : Appeals(s) allowed

Judge Name: HEMANT GUPTA,V. RAMASUBRAMANIAN

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

The law relating to suspicious circumstances surrounding the
execution of a Will is already well-settled and it needs no reiteration. It is enough if we make a reference to one of the recent decisions of this
Court in Kavita Kanwar vs. Mrs. Pamela Mehta and Ors. where
this Court referred to almost all previous decisions right from H.
Venkatachala Iyengar vs. B.N. Thimmajamma. But cases in which
a suspicion is created are essentially those where either the signature of
the testator is disputed or the mental capacity of the testator is questioned.
This can be seen from the fact that almost all previous decisions of this
Court referred to in Kavita Kanwar (supra) list out circumstances, which
in the context of the lack of sound and disposing state of mind of the
testator, became suspicious circumstances. In the matter of appreciating
the genuineness of execution of a Will, there is no place for the Court to
see whether the distribution made by the testator was fair and equitable
to all of his children. The Court does not apply Article 14 to dispositions
under a Will

REFERRED

• Kavita Kanwar vs. Mrs. Pamela Mehta and Ors. AIR
  2020 SC 544
  
• H. Venkatachala Iyengar vs. B.N.
  Thimmajamma, AIR 1959 SC 443 : [1959] 1 Suppl. SCR
  426 – referred to