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R. Krsna Murtii vs R. R. Jagadesan

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 741Decided 21 Jul 2022
Civil Appeal No. 4832 of 2022
Dinesh Maheshwari · Aniruddha Bose

Background

A man had been acting as his mother's power-of-attorney holder in a suit she had filed for declaration and recovery of possession of property. After she died in 2020, the son applied to be substituted as her legal representative, claiming she had left a registered will in 2016 leaving her entire estate to him. The trial court rejected this, noting the mother had another son and a daughter as well, and dismissed his substitution application outright without impleading them. The High Court upheld this dismissal on revision, saying the son should have applied to bring in the other legal heirs.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that both the trial court and High Court were wrong to reject the son's substitution application altogether. It reasoned that the appellant, being admittedly the deceased's own son, unquestionably qualified as one of her legal heirs, whether the property ultimately went to him alone (under the will) or was shared among all heirs (if the will's validity were later disputed) was a separate question that did not affect his basic entitlement to be substituted as a legal representative. If the trial court doubted whether the will covered all the heirs, it should have used the inquiry procedure available under Order XXII Rule 5 of the Code of Civil Procedure, rather than dismissing the application outright. The Court set aside both lower orders and restored the substitution application for fresh consideration by the trial court in accordance with law, allowing the appeal with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

When a litigant dies during a case, any of their legal heirs, including one claiming under a will, is ordinarily entitled to be substituted as a legal representative to continue the case; courts should not dismiss such applications outright merely because other possible heirs have not yet been added, but should instead use the proper inquiry procedure to resolve any dispute over who the true legal representatives are.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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