Frequently Asked Questions On Inheritance And Will

QUERY #1

My aunt made a will and as per her wish took consent from both her legal heirs with two witnesses.
There is no dispute about the subject property, as the property was purchased by my aunt with her own income.
Both legal heirs gave their consent as no objection and signed the will.
My aunt expired and now both the legal heirs have given separate affidavits in favor of the will holder to transfer the property to the will holder's name.
Please let me know: If the legal heirs have signed as no objection to the will, and said they will transfer the property, can any technical problem be raised by the concerned authority? Or is it legally acceptable?

ANSWER:
The short answer to your question is NO. No objection can be raised by any authority regarding the validity of the Will.

The making of wills in India is regulated by the Indian Succession Act, 1925, wherein it has been stated that a will can be made by any person of sound mind and not intoxicated, irrespective of whether they are blind, deaf, or dumb, as long as they are aware of what they are doing. These requirements form Section 59 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925.
If the property in question was ancestral, then the deceased would not have been permitted to create a will as there would be at least four generations of inheritors with the right to claim this property as per the Hindu Succession Act, 1956.

Since the property in question was purchased by the deceased with their own income, it is a self acquired property, and thus the owner of the property has every right to sell the property or transfer it to anyone they prefer, including through a will. Unless they died intestate, the legal heirs do not have any claim towards this property.
Therefore the testator does not require the consent of his legal heirs before writing a will in favor of a beneficiary who is not a legal heir. But the fact that their signatures have been added proving their non objection in the will could be useful in Court if a dispute ever arises.
Any chance for possible disputes can be minimized by ensuring that the testator clearly owns the said property, i.e they own the title of that property, and the sale deed through which the land was purchased has been registered.

Therefore, no objection can be raised by any authority regarding the validity of the will as long as the above mentioned conditions are met.

QUERY#2

A person “A” (a Hindu, Married Brahmin) made a will to divide his property in 2013. He mentioned in this will that he got this property through family partition between him and his father in 2012 through a registered deed and will come into force if he dies.
Narration of this will is:
1) He took some money (without any proof of it ) from his brother in law and this brother in law will live in that partitioned portion rent free up to 2015.
A died due to diabetes in 2014. Brother-in law did not claim anything from A's family.
2) A mentioned in his will that "This will come into force incase if A dies, otherwise he can take back the property from his Brother in Law and enjoy it on his own."
3) As per the will, some portion of the property shall go to his three sisters (a total of 50%), and from the remaining half, a) 30% to his wife, who cannot have any authority to sell or mortgage or any other transactions on this but can only enjoy it. After her death, this property shall go to his adopted son. b) 10% to his adopted son, and c) 10% to his legitimate daughter. This daughter got a lot of property earlier from her father, and except these three there are no other dependents on him.
This Will came into light just now (2024) and no one knew about it. Some person had sent this through a registered post from the place where died.
The will was signed by two witnesses and during the execution of the will the deceased was of sound mind.
But the question is can any person execute any Will with this type of conditions? Is this valid?
Are there any chances that this Will can be challenged by the legitimate daughter?

ANSWER:
The short answer to your question would be YES. This will is valid, and cannot be challenged by the daughter.

For a person to be capable of making a will, they must be of sound mind and not intoxicated at the time of creation of the will, and if they are an ordinarily insane person, the will must be created during the interval in which they are of sound mind. Also, a deaf, dumb, or blind person can create a will as long as they are aware of the consequences of their action. These requirements are mentioned in Section 59 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925. 
As long as the contents of a will are not of such nature that they are uncertain, illegal, immoral, or contain any clause that is barred by the law as per the Indian Succession Act, 1925, it is considered valid. Since none of the contents in the given will are of this nature, it cannot be considered invalid.
Since the property was self-acquired, the daughter cannot challenge the will claiming for more share than what has been given to her in the will.

QUERY #3

I want to give my movable and immovable property (self acquired) to my younger son only, out of my two sons. Please advise how?

ANSWER:
The short answer to your query is YES. You may transfer your property to just one of your sons after your death.

This can be done by creating a will, which shall contain the necessary conditions. As per Indian Succession Act, 1925, any person of sound mind may create a will, provided he is not intoxicated at the time of creation, and is in a state of sound mind if they are ordinarily insane. Even people who are deaf, dumb, or blind may create a will as long as they are aware of the consequences of their  action, as per Section 59 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925.
The contents of the will must not contain clauses that are uncertain, impossible, illegal, immoral, or in any other way barred by the Indian Succession Act, 1925, as that would lead to the will being declared invalid.
Also, during the creation of the said will, two witnesses are required to attest the validity of the will, and must have clearly seen the testator or some other person under the direction of the testator sign or fix their mark on the will, or must have received personal acknowledgement of the same from the testator, as per Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925.
As long as the said immovable property is self acquired and not ancestral, the other child shall have no right to question the will or claim any right of inheritance over the said property.

QUERY #4

A Hindu Brahmin person belonging to Andhra Pradesh became an alcoholic. When he was unable to control himself, he joined a De-addiction center in Bangalore.
After this, his legitimate daughter left home because of an intercaste marriage issue. At this point, he came back from Banglore and adopted his sister's son through a registered adoption deed.
After some time, his daughter bought him from Bangalore and kept him at her home in AP for some time during which she did some property registrations through him and received huge benefits. After these transactions were completed, he moved back to his De-addiction center.
He finally expired at the Bangalore De-addiction center in 2014. His total on and off stay at the center may be more than 25 years.
The daughter's argument is that during the time of his stay at her home, he was perfect and did all the property registrations as per his own wish. He went back to the De-addiction center as per his own desire.
They never arranged for any doctors to treat him during his stay at his daughter's home.
Now the people who have purchased the property from him are facing legal issues from his adopted son.
What is the validity of the property registrations he did during his stay at his daughter's home?

ANSWER:
The short answer to your query is YES. The property registrations done are completely valid.
But this is dependent on the fact that at the time of registration, the deceased was of sound mind. This fact has to be proven in court to ensure that the registrations stay valid. 
Assuming that the property was given to the daughter, the adopted son cannot create any legal issues if his share of the property is still intact. If that is not the case and the adopted son is not left with any property, he has every right to claim maintenance from this daughter. 
An adopted child has the same rights as the biological child, as per section 12 of the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956. Also in the same act, Section 21 classifies the son, both biological and adopted, to be a ‘dependant’ and can thus under Section 22 of the same act claim maintenance from whoever takes the estate, provided they have not obtained any  testamentary or intestate succession.