Dear Kamal Das,
Thank you for your query! I am Aadil and I will try to answer your question.
The short answer to your query is NO. No one can claim that the will has been revoked.
The rules regarding the creation and execution of wills are governed by the Indian Succession Act, 1925. As per Section 70 of the same Act, for an unprivileged will, the ways in which it can be revoked are as follows:
By marriage; or
By another will; or
By any writing from the testator declaring their intention to revoke the will and executing it in the manner in which an unprivileged Will maybe executed; or
By burning, tearing, or otherwise destroying the will by the testator or some person acting in his direction, with the intention to revoke the same.
Similarly, Section 72 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, states the ways in which a privileged will can be revoked:
By an unprivileged will; or
By any expression of the intent to declare the will invalid; or
By burning, tearing, or otherwise destroying the will by the testator or any other person acting under his direction, with the intention of revoking the same.
As evident from the above mentioned sections, losing the original of a will while a certified copy exists cannot be considered as a revocation of the same. The testator must, by some action, express his intent to revoke the will, which is missing here.
Therefore, simply losing the will cannot be a valid reason to file a suit claiming the revocation of the will, while a registered copy of the same exists with the registrar.
I hope this helps. Thank you for your time and patience!
Regards,
Aadil
