Case: Ramchandra Rambux Vs. Champabai And Others

we turn to the reverse of the sheet on which the document is inscribed, we find that as we go lower down, more and more words seem to be crammed in each line and the spacing between two lines tends to decrease, even though there appears to have been plenty of room for the sigature of Ramdhan to be scribed lower down on the paper. It would be legitimate to infer from this that the signature was already there before the will was scribed. This feature of the document as well as the quality of the paper used would suggest that a piece of paper bearing Ramdhans signature has been utilised by the scribe for engrossing what purports to be a will.14. Finally, there is the circumstance that the will is unnatural in the sense that though Ramdhan left property worth several lakhs, he made no provision for a residence for his wife but gave her only Rs. 40/- per month as her maintenance, and made only paltry bequests to his daughters. It is true that the daughters are married in affluent families, but in the absence of a male issue, a father is normlly expected to give at least substantial bequests to his daughters. Instead, the will gives almost the entire property to a distant relative, who, it may be noticed, was neither brought up by the testator, nor was a person who looked after the testator during his declining years. All this is said to have been due to the fact that Ramdhans relation with his wife had become strained. Indeed, the relationship between Ramdhan and his wife had become so bad that Ramdhan, according to the appellant, suspected that she was trying to poison him. Curiously enough, in spite of this, Ramdhan continued to live with Sitabai right till his death, and had made no arrangement for a person other than her to take charge of the cash and the gold and silver ornaments of the value of a couple of lakhs of rupees or so, in the event of his dying suddenly. There is nothing to suggest that Ramdhans food was cooked by any one other than Sitabai.15. To prove the appellants allegations that Ramdhan and Sitabai were not getting on well, the main evidence is that of the appellant himself, who is the person who has obviously taken an active part in procuring the execution of the document which he has set up as the will of Ramdhan. He must be held to have taken an active part, even though, according to him, he did not do so, because the will was written not only at Hyderabad where he lives and carries on his profession but also in his own house, and the persons who played one part or the other in this connection are either his friends or his neighbours. It is there circumstances which have to be borne in mind while evaluating the testimony of the witnesses bearing on the execution of the will. Further, it is necessary for the appellant to satisfy the conscience of the Court about the genuineness of this will by removing all suspicions which naturally flow from the various circumstances, which we have set out above. There is not an iota of evidence in this regard and we are not satisfied that the suspicion created by the circumstances referred to by us has been removed. Learned counsel has taken us through the evidence of the allpellant, the scribe and three attesting witnesses examined by him. All this evidence has been critically examined by the High Court but for reasons given by it in its judgment, not accepted by it. We find no reasons for viewing the evidence differently.16. We have already adverted to the fact that no particular reason has been even indicated by the appellant as to why Ramdhan thought of executing a will long before his death. If his idea in doing so was to make certain that his property does not fall in Sitabais hands after his death one would have expected to make some arrangement for keeping the movables out of her reach. He, however, made no such arrangement. Further, he would have also taken the precaution of registering the will, so that any challenge to its genuineness could not have been successfully made.17. Further, there is no unimpeachable evidence to show that the will was brought to light immediately after Ramdhans death, which would have been the case if it were a genuine will. On the other hand, there is one circumstance which suggests that the claim on the basis of Ramdhans will was not even thought of by the Appellant till long after Ramdhans death. The circumstance is the continuance of Sitabai in possession of the cash, gold and silver articles and other movables even subsequent to Ramdhans death. Of course, the appellant has given the explanation that he allowed her to remain in possession on his behalf, but his evidence is wholly incredible. Indeed, the appellant has said that he instituted the suit because he found Sitabai parting with portions of Ramdhans movables in favour of her daughters and strangers after the death of Ramdhan. At least, one thing will follow item this that according to him Sitabai was more interested in her daughters than in him. If, therefore, he had a genuine claim to Remdhans property, he would not have allowed Sitabai to remain in possession of Ramdhans movables. At least, he would have obtained from her a document containing the list and description of the movables and also an admission to the effect that she was entrusted with them by the appellant and that she had no right in them. Had she refused to execute such a document, one would have naturally expected the appellant to institute a suit for their possession immediately. There is no explanation for the absence of such a document, and thus this is also a circumstance which militates against the genuineness of the will.

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 0

Explanation:
0[ds].In order to judge the credibility of the witnesses, the Court is not confined only to the way in which the witnesses have deposed or to the demeanour of witnesses but it is open to it to look into the surrounding circumstances as well as the probabilities so that it may be able to form a correct idea of the trustworthiness of the witnesses. This issue cannot be determined by considering the evidence adduced in the Court separately from the surrounding circumstances which have also been brought out in the evidence, or which appear from the nature and contents of the document itself.We do not understand the observations of Lord Watson to mean that the testimony as to the execution of the document has to be considered independently of the attendant circumstances. All that he says is that where there is a large and consistent body of testimony tending to show the execution of a will by the testator, that evidence should not be lightly set aside on the theory of improbability.The High Court has analysed the entire evidence adduced by the propounder of the will to prove its due execution by Ramdhan, and along with that evidence, it has also considered certain attendant circumstances. One is the fact that the will is said to have been executed at Hyderabad, which is a place where the appellant resides and carries on his profession as a medical practitioner and not at Peepalgaon, where Ramdhan resided. The evidence adduced in the case shows that on the day prior to the one on which the will purports to have been executed, Ramdhan was at Ghanegaon till the afternoon. This place is 8 miles distant from Peepalgaon, and the nearest railway station is 20 miles distant from Peepalgaon. The will is said to have been executed at about noon, and though it is not impossible, it is highly improbable that Ramdhan could have been present at the place of execution by that time. The third thing is that the will was executed in the house of the appellant. One of the circumstances is that there was no particular reason why the will should have been executed at that time, because there is no suggestion that Ramdhan was not keeping good health. Then again the property is very considerable, and instead of employing the services of a trained lawyer to draw up the will, a layman like Venkat Bajaram, who has given his profession as "Jagirdari had been enlisted. The scribe as well as the attesting witnesses are not the personal friends of Ramdhan, though they say they knew him, but appear to be either the friends or neighbours of the appellant. Yet, the appellant wants the Court to believe that all these persons were collected by Ramdhan after his arrival at Hyderabad on the morning of May, 23. This, in itself, would be an improbable thing indeed, because Ramdhan would not have had enough time at his disposal for doing it. Again, there is no explanation why he should collect only the friends and acquaintances of the appellant rather than persons, who were his own friends.13. The High Court has further pointed out that the document is inscribed on a flimsy paper. It is in high flown Urdu, and is alleged to have been dictated by him in that language. No doubt, the evidence indicates that Ramdhan could speak in Urdu, but it also indicates that he cannot read or write in Urdu. It would, therefore, be legitimate to infer that the language which he could speak was the unlettered mans Urdu and notUrdu, which contains an admixture of Persian words. Indeed, such words have actually been used in this document. The signature of Ramdhan is itself in Modi script, which would not have been the case if he were well versed in Urdu. When we turn to the reverse of the sheet on which the document is inscribed, we find that as we go lower down, more and more words seem to be crammed in each line and the spacing between two lines tends to decrease, even though there appears to have been plenty of room for the sigature of Ramdhan to be scribed lower down on the paper. It would be legitimate to infer from this that the signature was already there before the will was scribed. This feature of the document as well as the quality of the paper used would suggest that a piece of paper bearing Ramdhans signature has been utilised by the scribe for engrossing what purports to be a will.14. Finally, there is the circumstance that the will is unnatural in the sense that though Ramdhan left property worth several lakhs, he made no provision for a residence for his wife but gave her only Rs. 40/per month as her maintenance, and made only paltry bequests to his daughters. It is true that the daughters are married in affluent families, but in the absence of a male issue, a father is normlly expected to give at least substantial bequests to his daughters. Instead, the will gives almost the entire property to a distant relative, who, it may be noticed, was neither brought up by the testator, nor was a person who looked after the testator during his declining years. All this is said to have been due to the fact that Ramdhans relation with his wife had become strained. Indeed, the relationship between Ramdhan and his wife had become so bad that Ramdhan, according to the appellant, suspected that she was trying to poison him. Curiously enough, in spite of this, Ramdhan continued to live with Sitabai right till his death, and had made no arrangement for a person other than her to take charge of the cash and the gold and silver ornaments of the value of a couple of lakhs of rupees or so, in the event of his dying suddenly. There is nothing to suggest that Ramdhans food was cooked by any one other than Sitabai.15. To prove the appellants allegations that Ramdhan and Sitabai were not getting on well, the main evidence is that of the appellant himself, who is the person who has obviously taken an active part in procuring the execution of the document which he has set up as the will of Ramdhan. He must be held to have taken an active part, even though, according to him, he did not do so, because the will was written not only at Hyderabad where he lives and carries on his profession but also in his own house, and the persons who played one part or the other in this connection are either his friends or his neighbours. It is there circumstances which have to be borne in mind while evaluating the testimony of the witnesses bearing on the execution of the will. Further, it is necessary for the appellant to satisfy the conscience of the Court about the genuineness of this will by removing all suspicions which naturally flow from the various circumstances, which we have set out above. There is not an iota of evidence in this regard and we are not satisfied that the suspicion created by the circumstances referred to by us has been removed. Learned counsel has taken us through the evidence of the allpellant, the scribe and three attesting witnesses examined by him. All this evidence has been critically examined by the High Court but for reasons given by it in its judgment, not accepted by it. We find no reasons for viewing the evidence differently.16. We have already adverted to the fact that no particular reason has been even indicated by the appellant as to why Ramdhan thought of executing a will long before his death. If his idea in doing so was to make certain that his property does not fall in Sitabais hands after his death one would have expected to make some arrangement for keeping the movables out of her reach. He, however, made no such arrangement. Further, he would have also taken the precaution of registering the will, so that any challenge to its genuineness could not have been successfully made.17. Further, there is no unimpeachable evidence to show that the will was brought to light immediately after Ramdhans death, which would have been the case if it were a genuine will. On the other hand, there is one circumstance which suggests that the claim on the basis of Ramdhans will was not even thought of by the Appellant till long after Ramdhans death. The circumstance is the continuance of Sitabai in possession of the cash, gold and silver articles and other movables even subsequent to Ramdhans death. Of course, the appellant has given the explanation that he allowed her to remain in possession on his behalf, but his evidence is wholly incredible. Indeed, the appellant has said that he instituted the suit because he found Sitabai parting with portions of Ramdhans movables in favour of her daughters and strangers after the death of Ramdhan. At least, one thing will follow item this that according to him Sitabai was more interested in her daughters than in him. If, therefore, he had a genuine claim to Remdhans property, he would not have allowed Sitabai to remain in possession of Ramdhans movables. At least, he would have obtained from her a document containing the list and description of the movables and also an admission to the effect that she was entrusted with them by the appellant and that she had no right in them. Had she refused to execute such a document, one would have naturally expected the appellant to institute a suit for their possession immediately. There is no explanation for the absence of such a document, and thus this is also a circumstance which militates against the genuineness of the will.