Wills in Hindu Law

Himanil Raina from NALSAR Hyderabad discusses some things about wills in India that everyone needs to know. It`s up to him. Oral wills: Oral wills are only valid in a few states and in very limited circumstances. They usually require a donation out of fear of death and can only be used to distribute personal possessions. Oral wills are unusual and uncertain. If you plan to make a will, do not plan to make an oral will on your deathbed. Instead, take the time to write a formal will. The Muslim Wills Act is not the same as the law governing the wills of Hindus or those made under the Indian Succession Act 1925. This is done on the grounds that under Muslim law, the testamentary behavior of the property is considered great and is based on the Qur`an.

The Muslim Testament is not administered by the Indian Succession Act of 1925. Individual Muslim laws in India or Sharia law announce certain principles, guidelines and ways in which an individual can organize his property. Double wills are strong and valid evidence of testamentary purposes until the original will is no longer registered. Otherwise, the authenticity of the duplicate remains questionable7. The presumption that the original will will be revoked takes precedence if the original will is not filed with the duplicate in the application for succession8. Reciprocal wills are the type of wills in which two people agree to make a will on mutually agreed terms. In these wills, the testator creates the other person as his legatee. In general, married couples who have children from their first marriage draw up such wills to ensure the interests of those children. The terms of the will remain binding on the surviving partner after the death of the first partner. Mutual wills help ensure that property passes to the children of the deceased and not to a new spouse of the surviving partner if they remarry. A fundamental feature of real estate is that it cannot be without owners. In the event of a person`s death, their property must pass on to someone and the deed of transfer of ownership is called succession.

The right of succession is divided into two parts of testamentary succession and legal succession. If a person draws up a will that disposes of his or her property, this is subject to the law of testamentary succession. In cases where no will has been made, the law of legal succession comes into force and his property is acquired by his heirs under intestate law. This article deals with wills and, therefore, only testamentary succession (i.e. succession by will) will be considered. If you are in need or have very simple wishes, a legal will may work well for you. However, these wills are not very flexible and you may not be able to adapt them to your needs. Normally, a testator draws up a single will for his testamentary declarations. The testator may, at his request or for reasons of convenience, make different wills for property in different geographical localities. Therefore, coexisting wills that deal with the testamentary declarations of an individual testator are called competing wills. A holograph will must be written in your hand and does not need to be attested.

Although it may seem simpler, holograph wills can cause problems after your death, as the court has to decipher and verify your handwriting. This can cause problems for your family. If you want to create a will of considerable length or complexity, it is much easier to create a formal will on a computer, with software or with the help of a lawyer. Section 2(h) of the Indian Succession Act 1925 provides that a will means a lawful statement of a person`s intention in respect of his property which he wishes to take effect after his death. A “will” is a legal statement of a man`s intention to practise after his death, or a document by which a person makes a disposition of his property that takes effect after his death. For persons who hold assets in more than one country and at least one country is not party to the Convention, it may be appropriate for the person to have several wills, one for each country. In some countries, multiple wills can be useful to reduce or avoid taxes on the estate and its assets. Care must be taken to avoid accidental revocation of previous wills, conflicts between wills in order to anticipate problems of jurisdiction and choice of applicable law that may arise during probate proceedings. Joint and mutual will: A joint will distributes the property of two or more people, usually a married couple. Joint wills determine what happens to the couple`s property after the death of one spouse, as well as what happens to the property after the death of the second spouse.

While it may seem convenient for a couple to make only one will, joint wills can cause problems for the surviving spouse because they tie assets together and limit what he or she can do with it, forever. For example, if a couple makes a joint will and the husband dies in his forties, the wife may live another 40 years or more, but she will still be bound by the terms of the will made earlier in her life. Joint wills are best used (if any) by couples who have children together and want to ensure that the property goes to those children (rather than a spouse or later child). But there are better ways to do it, such as using children`s trust. Handwritten wills: About half of states recognize handwritten wills, also known as holograph wills. Conditional and conditional wills: Conditional wills only come into effect when a specific act or condition occurs. It means something different from the person who wrote the death of the will. It could be a future event that is not closely related to the drafting of the will, such as reaching a certain age. In the movie “Brewster`s Millions,” Richard Pryor only inherited after spending millions to learn how to value money.

This is an extreme example, but strange conditions are known to apply. You will need a lawyer to draft this type of will. The execution of these wills depends on the occurrence of an event, and if this event occurs only in the future, the will becomes effective. These wills are drawn up for several purposes. If the testator wants to motivate a loved one to do something good, such as “my son will only get my property if he finishes his law degree with a grade of 70%” or if he wants to appropriate his property safely in the event of death during a trip abroad6, he can condition it in his will. Any condition that violates the law or is invalid in nature cannot be included in a will. Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada (for 9 provinces, not Quebec), Cyprus, Ecuador, France, Italy, Libya, Niger, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovenia, Iran, Laos, Russian Federation, Sierra Leone, United Kingdom and the United States have signed but not ratified. International wills are only valid if the Convention applies. Although the United States has not ratified on behalf of any state, the unified law has been enacted in 23 states and the District of Columbia. These wills are written from an ulterior motive that is not the testamentary operation and execution of the will. In most cases, these wills are more likely to be made for an immoral purpose, such as acquiring property that does not belong to the plaintiff, deception, etc.

One of the essential features of a valid will is the testator`s will. These wills are supplemented by all the necessary documents to correctly execute the security purpose and not to execute the will according to testamentary procedures. The Indian Succession Act recognizes two types of wills, non-privileged wills and privileged wills. Privileged wills are those that can be made to my members of the armed forces who are deployed on an expedition or involved in an actual war, and can also be made in oral form. For them, a relaxation of formalities is envisaged, because the dangers and possibility of sudden death are inherent in the lack of time and resources for the conscious drafting of written wills.