Dear Forum Members
I would like to have your esteemed opinion on a problem that I am facing.
My father has bequeathed a self acquired property to me through a registered will. My brothers had filed a suit for declaration under section 16.
I thought this was a open and close case since I had a registered will in my hands.
However, my laywer probably became over confident or for some other reason did not call upon the attesting witnesses to the will and lost the case just due to this one fact. The judgement says that since the genuineness of the will can not be proved due to the lack of attesting witnesses, the property should be equally divided.
Since I am in touch with the attesting witnesses and they are willing to testify in court, I feel that I lost the case for no fault of mine - I feel since I am a lay man, I was not supposed to know the such things as attesting witnesses are needed even in a registered will.
Now, I plan to file an appeal in a district court and will pray for permission to add an additional witness. I understand that such permissions are given at the discretion of the judge hearing the appeal, my question is that is there any clause in law that would be applicable here given the fact that my lawyer made a mistake by not calling the witness in the civil court and I am being penalized for his mistake?
Would the Limitation Act be helpful in this case?
Thank you for your time in advance.
