Page 232 - DMGT515_PERSONAL_FINANCIAL_PLANNING

Unit 12: Estate Planning

Types of a Will Notes

1. Privileged and Unprivileged Wills: Wills executed according to the provisions of section
63 of the Indian Succession Act are called Unprivileged Wills and Wills executed under
section 66 of the Act, by a soldier employed in an expedition or engaged in actual warfare,
or by an airman so employed or engaged, or by mariner being at sea, are called Privileged
Wills. It is provided in the Act that such a Will may be written wholly by the testator with
his own hands and, in such a case, it need not be signed or attested; or it may be written
wholly or in part by another person, in which case, it may be signed by the testator but
need not be attested. If, however, an instrument purporting to be a Will is written wholly
or in part by another person and is not signed by the testator, it shall be deemed to be his
Will, if it is shown that it was written by the testator’s directions or was recognized by him
as him Will. if, on the face of it, the instrument appears to be incomplete, it shall
nevertheless, be demand to be the Will of the testator, provided the fact that it was not
completed, can be attributed to some cause other than the abandonment of the testamentary
intentions expressed in the instrument. Further, if such a soldier, airman or mariner has
written instructions for the preparation of his Will, but has not died before it could be
prepared and executed, the instructions shall be deemed to be his Will; and if such a person
has, in the presence of two witnesses, given verbal instructions for the preparation of his
Will, and such instructions have been reduced to writing in his lifetime, but he has died
before the Will could be prepared and executed, then such instructions are to be considered
to constitute his Will, although they may not have been reduced into writing in his
presence, nor read over to him. It is also provided that such a soldier, airman or mariner
may make a Will by word of mouth by declaring his intention before two witnesses
present at the same time, but such a Will shall become null at the expiration of one month
after the testator, being still alive, has ceased to be entitled to make a privileged Will.
An unprivileged Will like Codicil can be revoked by the testator only by another Will or
by some writing declaring an intention to revoke the same and executed in the manner in
which an unprivileged Will can be executed under the Act or by burning, tearing or
destroying of the same by the testator or by some other person in his presence and by his
directions with the intention of revoking the same.

Mere loss of a Will does not operate as a revocation but where a Will is destroyed by the
testator or with his privacy or approbation, it is to be deemed to have been revoked.
No obliteration, interlineations or other alternation made in any unprivileged Will after
the execution thereof, can have any effect except so far as the words or meaning of the Will
have been thereby rendered illegible or unidiscernible, unless such alteration has been
executed in the same manner as is required for the execution of the Will; but a Will, as so
altered, shall be deemed to be duly executed if the signature of the testator and the
subscription of ht witnesses is made in the margin or some other part of the Will opposite
or near to such alternation, or at the foot or end or opposite to a memorandum referring
to such alteration, and written at the and or some other part of the Will.
A privileged Will or Codicil may be revoked by the testator by an unprivileged Will or
codicil, or buy any act expressing an intention to revoke it and accompanied by such
formalities as would be sufficient to give validity to a privileged Will, or by the burning,
tearing or otherwise destroying the same by the testator or by some person in his presence
and by his direction with the intention of revoking the same. In such cases, it is not
necessary that the testator should, at the it time of doing the act which has the effect of
revocation of the Will or Codicil, be in a situation which entitles him to make a privileged
Will.

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