Wills, Probate and Succession: Questions and Answers

No. For a Hindu, Sikh, Jain or Buddhist, probate was compulsory only for wills made in, or dealing with immovable property in, the areas named in Section 57 of the Indian Succession Act 1925 (broadly West Bengal and the old Madras and Bombay presidency towns), and Delhi was never one of them. Even that rule, Section 213, was omitted in December 2025, so probate is now not compulsory anywhere in India. Wills of Muslims never needed it either. In practice, though, a housing society, bank, DDA or a buyer may still ask for it, especially if the will is unregistered or a family member objects. Read is probate mandatory in Delhi.

Get it when someone in the family may dispute the will later, when a buyer or bank insists, when the will is unregistered, or when there are many heirs and some live abroad. A probate is a court's certificate that the will is genuine and was validly made, and it binds everyone once granted. Without it, the will has to be proved afresh every time it is questioned, sometimes years later when the witnesses are gone. For a single flat with all heirs agreeing in writing, it may not be worth the time.

It depends on whether there is a will and what the assets are. Probate is granted to the executor named in a will. Letters of administration are granted when there is no will, or when there is a will but no executor able or willing to act. A succession certificate under Section 372 of the Indian Succession Act covers only debts and securities, like bank deposits, shares and dues owed to the deceased, and is used mostly where there is no will. For land or a house, a succession certificate is not the document.

Often not. In Delhi, the SDM's office issues a surviving member certificate, often called a legal heir certificate, after the Tehsildar verifies the family. It is used for things like family pension, compassionate appointment and transfer of utility connections. A succession certificate is granted by a civil court after notice to the public and lets a bank or company pay out the deceased's money safely. Many banks refuse the SDM certificate for larger balances. See our guide on the succession certificate.

His Class I heirs inherit it in equal shares under Section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act 1956: his widow, his sons, his daughters and his mother, along with the children of any child who died before him. The mother is the heir families most often forget, and leaving her out makes a sale deed or mutation defective. Married daughters take the same share as sons. If the mother later dies, her share passes under the rules for a woman's property, not back to the sons alone.

Under Section 15 of the Hindu Succession Act, her sons, daughters and husband take equal shares, with the children of a predeceased child taking that child's share. Only if none of them exist does the property go to the husband's heirs. There is a special rule for property she inherited: if she got it from her father or mother and has no children, it goes back to her father's heirs, and if she got it from her husband or father-in-law, it goes to her husband's heirs. Her self-bought flat follows the general rule.

Yes, in most cases. The Supreme Court held in Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020) that daughters are coparceners by birth, and it does not matter whether the father was alive on 9 September 2005, when the amendment came in. The exception is property already partitioned before 20 December 2004 by a registered deed or a court decree. A claim of an old oral partition is not accepted unless public records support it. See a daughter's share in her father's property.

Yes, if the house was his self-acquired property. A person can will his own property to anyone, and the daughters have no legal claim against a valid will. If the house was ancestral coparcenary property, he can will only his own share, not the shares that belong to his children by birth. So the daughters' real options are to show the property was ancestral, or to challenge whether the will itself was validly made. Feeling that the will is unfair is not a ground in law.

No. A widow inherits her husband's property the moment he dies, as a Class I heir, and remarriage later does not take it away. The old provision that disqualified certain widows who had remarried before the succession opened was removed in 2005. Families sometimes pressure a remarried widow to sign a release, but she is under no legal duty to do so. If she does sign, it should be a registered document, made freely, with full knowledge of what she is giving up.

A child adopted validly under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act 1956 is treated in every way as a natural child and inherits equally. Children born of a second marriage that is void, because the first spouse was alive, are still treated as legitimate under Section 16 of the Hindu Marriage Act and inherit from their parents. A void second marriage gives the second spouse no right as a widow, though. Proof of adoption matters, so keep the adoption deed or the evidence of the ceremony safe.

Neither. A will can be handwritten on plain paper. It is valid if the person signs it and two witnesses sign it after seeing him sign, as Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act requires. Registration is optional and no stamp duty is payable on a will. Registration does help, because the sub-registrar's record and photograph make it harder to challenge, and DDA and banks accept a registered will more readily. A will without two attesting witnesses is the mistake that most often makes it invalid.

The will is not invalid, but the gift to him may be. Under Section 67 of the Indian Succession Act, a bequest to an attesting witness, or to the witness's wife or husband, is void, while the rest of the will stands. The witness also remains a valid witness for proving the will. So if your brother was one of only two witnesses, his share under the will fails and that property passes as if there were no will. This is why careful drafting uses outsiders as witnesses.

The later valid will counts. A will can be changed or revoked any number of times, and a later will replaces the earlier one either by a revocation clause or to the extent the two conflict. The fight is usually over whether the later will is genuine. If it was made during a serious illness, in a hospital, or with the main beneficiary arranging the witnesses, the court will look closely. If the later will fails, the earlier one can still be proved, so keep both originals.

You object in the probate case if one is filed, or file a suit for a declaration that the will is not genuine. The court looks for suspicious circumstances: the person's mental state, who drafted it, who was present, and whether the beneficiary played an active role. When Advocate B.K. Singh takes up a will challenge, he first gets the hospital or doctor's records for the date of the will and, if it was registered, the sub-registrar's file. Read how to challenge a will in Delhi.

The person relying on the will, called the propounder, must prove it. He has to examine at least one attesting witness who saw the testator sign, as the evidence law has always required, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam carries this rule forward. He must also clear away any suspicious circumstances. But if the objector alleges a specific fraud, such as forgery or coercion, the objector has to prove that allegation. A registered will still needs proof, though registration helps in practice.

File a caveat in the court where the probate petition is likely to be filed, under Section 284 of the Indian Succession Act. Once a caveat is on record, no grant is made without notice to you. If you then file objections, the probate case turns contentious and is tried like a regular suit, with pleadings and evidence. Heirs are also entitled to notice anyway, but caveats help where you fear a wrong address will be given. Note that probate caveats differ from caveats under the CPC.

No. A will has no effect until the person dies, and she can change or cancel it at any time before that. A court will not hear a case about a will of a living person. If your worry is that she is being pressured to transfer property now by a gift deed or sale deed, that is a different matter, because a gift or sale takes effect at once and can be challenged. Speak to her directly, and keep records of her health if there is genuine concern about her capacity.

Keep the original will, the death certificate, a family tree with the current addresses of every legal heir, the names and addresses of the attesting witnesses, and a list of assets with their values and title papers. Advocate B.K. Singh asks families to trace the attesting witnesses before anything else, because a witness who has moved or died changes how the case must be proved. Consent affidavits from heirs who agree save months. You can send us the will and papers to check what is needed.

Yes, it does. The petition lists the assets covered by the will at their market value, with debts and funeral expenses shown separately, and the court fee is worked out on the net value. If the value is above Rs 2 crore, the petition goes to the original side of the Delhi High Court at present. Below that, it goes to the District Judge. A proposal to raise this limit is pending, so check the current limit. Do not undervalue assets, because the valuation can be checked.

The court issues notice, called citations, to all legal heirs and publishes a notice in a newspaper so that anyone with an objection can appear. Notice also goes to the revenue authority to check the valuation. If nobody objects, the propounder proves the will, usually by an affidavit of an attesting witness, and the court grants probate once the court fee is paid. An uncontested case takes several months, often longer. Track it on the court's own website. See how long probate takes.

It can move faster, but the basic steps still happen. If every legal heir files a no-objection or consent affidavit, the court may dispense with some formalities, and proof of the will becomes straightforward. Newspaper publication is still required, because the grant binds the whole world and not just the family. The common delay is one heir abroad who has not signed. Get consent affidavits executed and apostilled or attested at the Indian embassy before filing, not after notice goes out.

There is no fixed deadline counted from the date of death. The Supreme Court has held that the three-year period under Article 137 of the Limitation Act applies, but the right to apply is treated as continuing and arises when the need for probate arises, for example when a bank or buyer asks for it. A long delay will still be questioned, and you should explain it in the petition. Delay also makes proof harder, because witnesses die or cannot be traced.

Sometimes, but it is difficult. You must explain how the original was lost, prove the copy is a true copy, and prove that the will was properly signed and witnessed. There is a further problem. If the original was last in the deceased's own custody and cannot be found after death, the law may presume that he destroyed it to revoke it. You then have to rebut that presumption with evidence, such as the original having been with a lawyer or a bank locker that was later lost.

An executor can renounce, preferably in writing filed before the court. Probate is then not possible, because probate goes only to an executor. Instead, a beneficiary can apply for letters of administration with the will annexed, which gives the same effect: the will is proved and the applicant administers the estate. The applicant usually has to give an administration bond with sureties, which is not required in probate. Read our guide on letters of administration.

Usually you do not start from scratch. Under Section 228 of the Indian Succession Act, where a will has been proved by a court abroad, letters of administration with an authenticated copy of that will annexed can be granted in India. The foreign grant must be properly authenticated. If the will was never proved abroad, you file for probate here. A US will dealing with Indian property should still meet Indian rules on signing and attestation, so check that before relying on it.

Generally no. A nominee receives the money so that the bank gets a valid discharge, but the nominee holds it for the legal heirs or the beneficiaries under the will. The heirs can claim their shares from the nominee. The same broad approach applies to shares and mutual fund units. Life insurance is different in one way: where the nominee is the policyholder's parent, spouse or child, the law treats them as a beneficial nominee who keeps the money. Check the nomination form before assuming anything.

For larger amounts, yes. Where there is no nominee or surviving joint holder, RBI's 2025 directions on deceased customers' claims require banks to follow a simplified procedure up to a threshold, set at Rs 15 lakh for commercial banks and Rs 5 lakh for cooperative banks, using an indemnity and basic documents. Above that, the bank may insist on a succession certificate, probate or letters of administration. Banks must settle within 15 days of receiving complete documents. Check your bank's current policy.

An uncontested succession certificate usually takes a few months, because the court issues notice and publishes it before granting it. The court fee is a percentage of the amount covered, so list every deposit and security you want included. It cannot be used for a house or land. A succession certificate deals only with debts and securities. For immovable property, the heirs rely on the will, probate or letters of administration, or inheritance documents with relinquishment deeds, and then get mutation done.

Apply to the MCD for mutation with the death certificate, proof of ownership, and either the will or probate, or consent and relinquishment documents from the other heirs, along with affidavits and an indemnity. Remember that mutation in the MCD record is only for collecting property tax. It does not decide who owns the property, and a court will not treat it as proof of title. So a mutation done in one heir's name does not cut out the others, and a dispute still goes to the civil court.

DDA usually asks for the death certificate, the allotment or conveyance papers, affidavits and an indemnity bond, and either a registered will or relinquishment deeds from the other legal heirs in favour of the person applying. Where the will is unregistered or disputed, DDA tends to insist on probate. If the flat is still leasehold, conversion to freehold may be done along with or after this. DDA's checklists change, so get the current one. For refusals and delays, see DDA disputes.

Legally the heirs become owners when the person dies, so a sale is possible. In practice, the buyer and his bank will want every legal heir to join the sale deed, or the others to have executed registered relinquishment deeds, along with the death certificate and family details. Where there is a will that others may question, buyers often ask for probate. Skipping an heir is the costliest mistake: that heir can later sue to cancel the sale for his share. Sort out the paperwork first.

You can each sell only your own undivided share, and few buyers want a share with a disputed co-owner. The practical route is a partition suit, where the court declares shares and can divide the house or order a sale. Under the Partition Act, an heir who refuses to cooperate may also be allowed to buy out the others. Advocate B.K. Singh often finds that a court notice brings an absent heir to the table faster than years of family calls. See partition suits in Delhi.

Not if the deed was registered and she signed it freely. A registered relinquishment of her share in immovable property binds her. She can challenge it only by proving fraud, coercion or misrepresentation, and within the time limit, usually three years from when she learnt of the fraud. An unregistered relinquishment of a share in immovable property is a different matter, because such a release generally needs registration to be effective. Check exactly what she signed and whether it was registered.

Usually your mother has a life interest and you have a vested right that comes into possession on her death. Neither can sell the full ownership alone. There is a twist in Hindu law. Under Section 14(1) of the Hindu Succession Act, if the life interest was given to a Hindu widow in recognition of her existing right to maintenance, it can grow into full ownership. If the will simply created a fresh limited right, Section 14(2) keeps it limited. The wording of the will decides this.

Yes. Under Muslim personal law, a person can generally bequeath only up to one third of the estate after paying funeral expenses and debts. A bequest beyond one third, or under the Hanafi school a bequest to an heir, is valid only if the other heirs consent after the death. The rest passes by the rules of inheritance. Probate is not needed for a Muslim's will. Many families avoid disputes by making a gift during the person's lifetime, which follows separate rules.

This is a tricky area. Agricultural land in Delhi villages is governed by the Delhi Land Reforms Act 1954, whose own succession rule historically preferred male heirs. The 2005 amendment to the Hindu Succession Act removed the provision that had protected such tenancy laws, and daughters have since argued for equal shares, with courts dealing with the conflict. Check the current position for your land before relying on the revenue entry, and do not accept a mutation that leaves out daughters without advice.