Question regarding trust property

Upon she being made a beneficiary of an immoveable property under a registered trust, she becomes absolutely entitled to the property. So she is free to deal with the property including to make a Will also.

Your grand father in deed of settlement of trust could have been a trustee too apart from being the settlor. If yes your grand father's role will be determined by the contents in the Trust Deed. If he had reserved any rights for himself also then he could have the discretion of making a joint Will.

If he did not reserve any right for himself  the part of the Will attributable to your  grand father will be of no consequence. While the one ascribed to your grand mother would be deemed to be the valid Will. Since she was the absolute beneficiary under the trust, she could bequeath the property the way she liked hence full effect will accrue as per the contents of the Will.

The Board of Trustees is not a different entity, they are the 7 people and they are the beneficiaries, since none of them is alive today their respective legal heirs would be entitled to the share/s relatable to their respective parent.

The argument of the opposite trustees would not be tenable because your grand mother did not have any locus to decide (and she need not have any say) as the same was conferred to her by her husband and she was a consenting party and it was absolutely gratis to her.

1. The first answer to first question is Yes, the Will is valid,

2. The individual members are entitled to the benefits.

3. The board of trustees comprises of the individual members of the heirs of 7 children of your grand parents. Moreover it cannot vest in the Board of Trustees because under Sec. 6 of the Indian Trust Act, 1882, the beneficiary should be reasonably certain and identifiable, since in the beginning they were certain and identifiable and now they are no more so naturally the benefits must accrue to respective legal heirs.

Thank you sir for your reply. My grandfather was not a Trustee in the Deed of Settlement as the property was transferred totally to my grandmother. However the Settlors did a Joint Will later on as my grandfather had other properties too besides the one he gave to my grandmother.

The Joint Will however also says that after the initial 7 Trustees/beneficiaries, their heirs would be the members of this Board of Trustees. The benefits would be staying in the property and receive income from the property. If however the property is sold in the future with unanimous consent,  then Trustees/beneficiaries would be entitled to a percentage of the sale proceeds as also outlined in the Will.

Therefore can't it be said that Trustees/beneficiaries are like Usurfucts and do not have any direct share in the property as Title has been vested with the Board of Trustees? Consequently they cannot ask for partition of this property especially when some heirs are not willing?

Dear advocates, I will be highly interested to know whether a court of law can pass a decree about individual shares in this aforesaid Trust assigned collective property and partition the property in metes and bounds when some of the Trustees including me are unwilling?

There are preliminary questions.

Since settlor was not the trustee - he would have relinquished all rights to his wife and hence the property would be deemed to have been usable enjoyable by the wife i.e. grandmother alone.

Since the property has fully vested in her she is free to do whatever she wants,

So she makes a joint will, but her husband did not have any interest left in the property hence his being a party to the will along with her is not going to have any bearing and any thing attributable to him in the will is liable to be expunged or to be ignored.

She can very well will the property the way she wants.

And she chose to declare another trust i.e. the Board of Trustees and since it involves presence of Immoveable property hence the Board of Trustees trust must be registered either by her before her death or after her demise by the executor/s and all the property must have been incorporated in the new trust to be known as board of trustees. If all this has happened which i think has not happened because it it in the probate stage so it comes again back to square one. SO UNLESS EVERYBODY AGREES YOU HAVE TO WAIT FOR JUDGMENT and the judgement would be on the basis of contents in the will if proven correct.

Since during the probate proceedings there is no consensus, this petition has got converted into a regular suit and will be decided on merits and all aspects would be looked into by the court, If will is proved the division will be as per the contents in the will otherwise on the basis of entitlement of each heir.

Thank you Adv Akhtar Ali Sheikh for some excellent replies. Many of my queries are hereby deemed to have been resolved as per your analysis.