ORDER

Mr. Mukul Joshi, I.A.S., Financial Commissioner. – This is a revision petition against the order of the Commissioner, Jalandhar Division, Jalandhar dated 6.11.2001 in the matter of mutation of inheritance of Sardool Singh, village Palasaur, Tehsil Tarn Taran, District Amritsar by which he set aside the order of the Collector, Amritsar dated 28.5.1999. Vide this order the Collector, Amritsar had rejected an appeal filed by the present respondent against the order of the Assistant Collector 1st Grade, Taran Taran, dated 16.10.1998 vide which he had sanctioned mutation to the inheritance of Sardool Singh deceased in favour of his widow Jagjit Karu and his sons Gulkanwar Singh and Harsanjeev Singh on the basis of an unregistered Will dated 24.4.1993. The details of the case are contained in the orders of revenue authorities placed below and need not be gone into.

2. It was argued on behalf of the petitioners that the mutation had been duly sanctioned on the basis of the unregistered Will by the Assistant Commissioner 1st Grade and the appeal in this matter had been rejected by the Collector. The unregistered Will was proved to be a valid document vide which the deceased had willed his property to his widow and two sons. This attestation was natural keeping in view the fact that the property is normally passed on to sons. As regards the minor daughter the Will had given reasons for not including her in the inheritance. The circumstances leading to the execution of the Will had been clearly explained and the execution of Will had been duly proved by the testimony of the scribe and the marginal witnesses. It was urged that there is no requirement that Will should be registered and this by itself cannot be treated as a suspicious circumstance, specially if otherwise when the execution of the Will is in order and is duly proved by the testimony of the required witnesses.

3. On behalf of the respondents it was argued that the Will was full of suspicious circumstances. The first suspicious circumstance was that the Will has been produced four years after the death of Sardool Singh. There was no explanation for this large time-gap. Secondly there was no reason as to why a young man of 39 years old should make a Will. Most importantly the attestator had, in his will, ignored first class heirs without proper justification. He has ignored his minor daughter allegedly on the ground that he had made adequate arrangements for her dowry. However, there was no evidence of this. He had ignored his mother, who was also a first class heir without giving any justification. In fact in the Will he had not even mentioned his mother. Other suspicious circumstances attached to the execution of this Will was that the scribe Balwant Singh attesting Baljinder Singh, both being lawyers, had a joint practice and had cause for animosity against Pritam Kaur. On the other hand Baldev Singh, brother of the deceased Sardool Singh who was having joint practice with him had no knowledge of the Will and was not associated with its execution, although in the natural course of things he should have been. The Will, therefore, was a fabrication and the orders of mutation had been correctly set aside by the Commissioner.

4. I have gone through the Court file and heard arguments of the Counsel. I am in agreement with the Commissioner, Jalandhar Division in his findings that the execution of this Will is attended by suspicious circumstances such as to render it invalid. There is no explanation for the suspicious circumstances listed in para 3 above. It is indeed surprising that the deceased being a lawyer should not be aware of these, particular by the disinheritance of first class heirs. It is not conceivable that the deceased in his Will should not even mention his mother, leave aside disinherit without stating adequate cause. I also agree with the Commissioner’s observation that the signatures of Sardool Singh, deceased on the unregistered Will and those on an arbitration notice signed by him present in the Assistant Collector’s file do not match. In fact in the arbitration notice, the deceased had signed as Sardool Singh Gill and not Sardool Singh as is recorded in the so-called Will. It is a settled principle of Revenue Law that an unregistered Will should not be accepted as the basis of mutation if it contains even the slightest suspicious circumstances. In the present case, there are several suspicious circumstances attending to the execution of this Will, and it should not have been accepted by the Assistant Collector 1st Grade as well as the Collector.

5. Accordingly the revision petition is rejected. The order of the Commissioner, Jalandhar Division stands.

6. To be communicated.

Petition dismissed.

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