Important decision of the High Court: Mandatory will registration abolished in the state

Prayagraj, 10 May (HS). Allahabad High Court, in its important order, has declared the 2004 amendment law making registration of wills mandatory in the state void and has canceled sub-section 3 of section 169 of the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act.

The court has termed this amendment law as contrary to the Indian Registration Act and said that registration of will will not be mandatory in the state. Through the amendment law, the government had made registration of wills mandatory from 23 August 2004. Now the High Court has said that if the will is not registered then it will not be invalid.

This order has been given by the division bench of Justice Siddharth Verma and Justice Ajit Kumar while disposing of the reference sent by the Chief Justice. Justice Vivek Chaudhary had requested to send this reference to a division bench to decide whether the effect of the implementation of the amendment law is immediate or retrospective. Because in the Shobhanath case, the High Court said that registration of the will has been made mandatory after the enactment of the law. But in Jahan Singh case it was said that the will becomes effective after death. Therefore it should be registered at the time of presentation.

To clear up this confusion, the single bench had requested to decide the reference. Disposing of this, the division bench has returned the petition of Pramila Tiwari vs. Anil Kumar Mishra and four others to the single bench.

During the hearing of the petition, the court modified the reference and gave its verdict on the original issue. After this decision, it will not be mandatory to register the will in the state.