A writ petition has been filed in the Madras High court challenging a legal provision which requires Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs to obtain a probate or Letter of Administration (LoA) from the courts concerned for inheriting properties through a will if it had been executed in Chennai, Mumbai or Kolkata or was related to properties situated in these three cities.
Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy have issued notice to the Centre as well as the State government on the petition filed by K.K. Subramanian of Sastri Nagar in Chennai. He had urged the court to declare Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, unconstitutional.
Senior counsel AR.L. Sundaresan argued that imposing certain conditions on the basis of religion and geographic location was discriminatory, unreasonable and in violation of Articles 14 (right to equality) and 15 (State shall not discriminate on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex and so on) of the Constitution.
In an affidavit filed through his counsel on record, E. Manohar, the septuagenarian petitioner stated that he had decided to execute a will/testament in favour of his family as it was his intention that all his wealth and earnings should go to his family members immediately upon his death.
However, on inquiry, he was shocked to find that his Hindu family residing in Chennai was at a more disadvantageous position than Christians/Muslims residing in Chennai and people of all religions residing in places other than Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata when it came to succession through will.
He was told that his family members could not inherit his property immediately after his death, even if he executed a will during his lifetime, and that they would have to first approach the High Court and obtain a probate or LoA on payment of a necessary court fee and that it was a time-consuming process.
The reason for such a hurdle was Section 213 of the colonial legislation which was based on the British practice of classifying cities as Part A, B and C. The legal provision had, however, exempted the Muslims and the Christians either residing or owning properties in Chennai, Mumbai or Kolkata from the procedure of probate.
Wills executed by Muslims had been excluded from the applicability of Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act because they were governed by the Sharia (Muslim personal law), according to which a person may by will, without the consent of his heirs, dispose only up to a third of his property left after payment of debts and funeral expenses.
The Christians were given a similar benefit by way of an amendment to the Indian Succession Act in 2002. During a discussion on the amendment, parliamentarian Adhir Chowdhary had insisted that other communities be exempted in order to avoid discrimination, the petitioner recalled.
He also stated that the Law Commission of India had in 2018 recommended repeal of Section 213.
