In Brief
The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by the plaintiffs challenging a High Court judgment that reversed the Trial Court's decision on the validity of a will dated 20 May 1991. The testator, Sangappa, had allegedly bequeathed properties to the plaintiffs (his grand-nephews by marriage). The High Court found the will to be a fabricated document based on multiple suspicious physical characteristics: the will was typed on three sheets of different colours; the testator's three signatures were made with different pens (fountain ink and ballpoint); signatures were placed at unusual distances from the typed content; and critically, pages 2 and 4 (the reverse sides) bore no signatures. The Supreme Court held that the propounder failed to satisfactorily explain these legitimate suspicions. The Court reaffirmed that when a will is surrounded by suspicious circumstances, all doubts must be removed by cogent evidence. The Court also rejected a request for remand, holding that sufficient evidence existed on record for final determination.
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