Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has held that merely establishing the genuineness of a testator’s signature on a document is not sufficient to prove the revocation of a will, unless the person relying on it also establishes that it was executed with knowledge of its contents and a clear intention to revoke the earlier will.
The court dismissed an appeal in a 36-year-old family property dispute, upholding a registered will executed in favour of a charitable trust.
Justice Suddala Chalapathi Rao was dealing with an appeal suit filed in 1999 by Admala Chandramma and others against the judgment of the Senior Civil Judge, Jagtial, in 1999. The dispute concerned properties at Metpally and agricultural lands at Masaipet and Vellulla.
Chandramma claimed that certain commercial buildings were constructed using her stridhana (woman’s property) and sale proceeds of her Hyderabad plot. She challenged a registered will dated October 12, 1989, executed by her husband, Admala Laxma Reddy, bequeathing properties to the Admala Laxma Reddy Charitable Trust and another individual. She contended that her husband subsequently revoked the will through a deed dated March 18, 1990.
The judge observed that although a handwriting expert found the disputed signature on the revocation deed to match the testator’s admitted signatures, the evidence failed to establish its due execution and his intention to revoke the earlier will. The court also found that Chandramma failed to establish exclusive ownership of the properties claimed as her stridhana.
The appellants questioned the action of the endowments department in taking possession of the properties without issuing notices to them or examining the original will. However, the court observed that even if there were procedural irregularities in the department’s action, such lapses would not, by themselves, create or confer ownership rights on the appellants. The legality of the procedure adopted by the endowments department while taking possession were two distinct issues and had to be examined independently, the court said.
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