NDLI: Gnanambal Ammal Vs. T. Raju Ayyar and Others

Gnanambal Ammal Vs. T. Raju Ayyar and Others

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Gnanambal Ammal Vs. T. Raju Ayyar and Others

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Gnanambal Ammal Vs. T. Raju Ayyar and Others

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	General principles Hindu law Construction Will
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Law Judgement
Jurisdiction	India
Case Type	Appeal
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Appeal Allowed
Headnote	Hindu law—Will—Construction—General principles —Presumption against intestacy.The cardinal maxim to be observed by courts in construing a will is to endeavor to ascertain the intentions of the testator. This intention has to be gathered primarily from the language of ‘the document which is to be read as a whole without indulging in any conjecture or speculation as to what the testator would have done if he had been better informed or better advised.The courts are however entitled and bound to bear in mind other matters than merely the words used. They must consider the surrounding circumstances, the position of the testator, his family relationship, the probability that he would use words in a particular sense, and many other things which are often summed up in the somewhat picturesque figure ‘the court is entitled to put itself into the testator’s armchair ’-But all this is solely as an aid to arriving at a right construction of the will, and to ascertain the meaning of the language when used by that particular testator in that document. As soon as the construction is settled, the duty of the court is to carry out the intentions as expressed. The court is in no case justified in adding to testamentary dispositions. In all cases it must loyally carry out the will as properly construed, and this duty is as universal, and is true alike of wills of every nationality and every religion or rank of life.A presumption against intestacy may be raised if it is justified by the context of the document or the surrounding circumstances; but it can be invoked only when there is undoubted ambiguity in ascertainment of the intentions of the testator. It cannot be that merely with a view to avoiding intestacy you are to do otherwise than construe plain words according to their plain meaning.A Hindu died leaving a widow, a widowed daughter N, and a married daughter G, after he had made a will giving authority to his widow to adopt son of G should she beget one, or in the alternative & son of one of his nephews. Para. 4 of the will provided that if his widow adopted G’s son all his properties except the village of K and the house at I and other properties disposed of by the will shall pass to the adopted son; and para, 5 provided as follows: ‘“‘The whole of the village of K and the house at I, my daughter N shall enjoy with life interest and after her the said property shall pass to my daughter G and her children on payment by the latter of Rs. 5,000 to A, the daughter of N.” Later on, amongst the provisions which he wished to make if a son of a nephew was adopted, there was a provision which ran as follows: “Para. 13. The village of K shall be enjoyed by N as stated in para. 5.” A nephew's son was adopted and he instituted a suit against G after N’s death for recovery of the village K contending that under para. 13 of the will there was no dis- position of the village after the life interest of N and on her death the village vested in him as the testator’s heir:Held, on construction of the will as a whole, that the testator did not intend that in the contingency of the adoption of a nephew's son, the village K should pass, on N’s death, to the adopted son; on the other hand, the provisions of para. 5 of the will were intended to apply even in the case of such a contingency and the village passed to G on N’s death under para. 5 of the will.
Judge	Honble Mr. Justice Bijan Kumar Mukherjea
Neutral Citation	1950 INSC 40
Petitioner	Gnanambal Ammal
Respondent	T. Raju Ayyar And Others
SCR	[1950] 1 S.C.R. 949
Judgement Date	1950-12-21
Case Number	13

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