Coparcenar Can Bequeath His Interest In Joint Property, Even Without There Being Partition

V. Kalyanaswamy
V.
L. Bakthavatsalam

Facts
Two brothers started a joint Hindu family business. One of them suffered from an illness and due to that he executed a will in which he bequeathed his share of business in joint family property and self acquired property to her wife. After his death, his wife filed a civil suit for the declaration of title of same property as mentioned in the will and the profits earned by her nephew over the property mentioned in the will in her favor. The court allowed the same. Later on, the nephews filed a case against the wife claiming the share in the bequeathed property on the ground that they were the part of the joint family property and were entitled to a share in the same. The parties then entered into a compromise and every party received some share in the property. After some time to the compromise, one of the nephews challenged the validity of the will on the ground that the will was executed under the influence of coercion, undue influence and fraud as the same is illegal and invalid as per the provisions of Hindu Personal Law.

Held
The Supreme Court in this case observed that the will was signed by the testator in presence of two or more witnesses and the same was attested by the testator as well as the witnesses. In case, the witnesses are not present to accept the facts, the same facts can be proved by producing evidences and same can be proved with the help of handwriting experts. Further, the nephews failed to prove the contentions made by them that the will was executed under the influence of coercion, undue influence and fraud.

On the above observations, the Supreme Court held that the testator had precisely and clearly mentioned all the details of the property and how the same can be bequeathed to his wife in the will and concluded that the will executed was the last will of the deceased and set aside the order of the High court upon the authenticity of the will bequeathed. According to Hindu Succession Act, a Hindu is allowed to transfer his interest in joint family property to any other person he wants.