In Brief
The Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of appeals challenging the validity of a will and inheritance rights in a Hindu joint family dispute. The court reaffirmed that unprivileged wills must be attested by two witnesses and, when original documents are unavailable, can only be proved through secondary evidence if an attesting witness is examined. The court clarified that a coparcener's right in joint family property is merely an interest until formal partition occurs; disruption in family status alone does not automatically confer exclusive ownership over specific properties without metes-and-bounds partition. The will's provisions for the widow were upheld as valid, and the appellants' claims regarding self-acquisition and partition were rejected.
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