Must a memorandum recording a past oral partition be registered or stamped to be admissible in evidence?
Coram: Justice R.Sakthivel
A memorandum recording a past oral partition need not be registered or stamped to be admissible in evidence.
No. A memorandum recording a past oral partition need not be registered or stamped to be admissible in evidence. Considering the cumulative circumstances — the equal division of the properties, the denial raised only about sixteen years after execution coupled with the non-denial by the others, and the fact that the parties were all educated — the Koor Chit was found to be a memorandum recording an earlier partition, and accordingly valid and admissible.
Registration — Memorandum of past oral partition — Indian Succession Act, 1925 — s.63 — Indian Evidence Act, 1872 — s.68 — Hindu Succession Act, 1956 — s.8 — Koor Chit — Separate property — Proof of Will — Oral partition — Memorandum recording an earlier partition — Registration and stamp — Held: A document written only to record an earlier oral partition creates no rights in praesenti; it needs neither registration nor stamp and is valid and admissible as such. (¶20) Evidence — Denial of signature — Duty to seek forensic examination — Held further: A party who denies his signature on a document must take steps to send it for forensic examination and signature verification, and a denial first raised sixteen years after execution carries little weight. (¶19) Partition — Property allotted on partition — Character in the allottee's hands — Held further: Property allotted to a member under a partition is his separate property and not family property, and he may settle it on whomsoever he pleases. (¶21) Indian Succession Act, 1925 — s.63 — Will — Suspicious circumstances — Held further: A registered Will proved through its attestors raises no suspicion where the testator bequeathed only a portion of his separate property. Second Appeal partly allowed. (¶22, 25)
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