Registration of will of agri land not necessary: Alld High Court

“Wills (of agricultural land) in Uttar Pradesh are not required to be registered and a ‘Will’ for its non-registration will not be void whether before or after the UP Amendment Act, 2004,” the court observed.

In a key judgment, the Allahabad High Court has ruled that the registration of will of agricultural land is not necessary in the state overturning a subsection in an Act. The Uttar Pradesh government made the registration of wills of agricultural land mandatory on August 23, 2004.

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“Wills (of agricultural land) in Uttar Pradesh are not required to be registered and a ‘Will’ for its non-registration will not be void whether before or after the UP Amendment Act, 2004,” the court observed.

A division bench, comprising justices Siddhartha Varma and Ajit Kumar, held that Subsection 3 of Section 169 of the UP Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950 will be void to the extent till it provides for the registration of ‘Wills’. The court made it clear that even if a will is not registered it won’t be invalid. The division bench gave this judgement on May 10 while disposing of a ‘reference’ sent to it by the high court chief justice in a petition filed by one Pramila Tiwari.

The high court found Subsection 3 of Section 169 of the said Act, in so far as it required a ‘Will’ to be compulsorily registered, to be contrary to the central legislation—the Indian Registration Act, 1908, which makes the registration of wills only optional. Hence, the court ruled that the aforementioned part of the subsection be registered void and struck down.

In the Shobhnath case, the high court had said that the registration of the will was necessary. But in the Jahan Singh case, it said that the will becomes effective after death. Therefore, it should be registered at the time of presentation.

To clear up the two contrary views, the chief justice had sent a reference to the above division bench of the high court, which summed up the issue as “Whether a ‘Will’ reduced into writing prior to August 23, 2004 is required to be compulsorily registered in the event the testator dies after the said date”.

During the court proceedings, the court examined whether the state legislature could have made the registration of ‘Will’ compulsory by incorporating a provision to this effect in law without the President’s assent, as Will, intestacy and succession under the Constitution of India fell as a subject matter in the Concurrent List and the central legislation was already touching the subject of registration of ‘will’.