Most Indian families discover the law of wills, succession, and probate at the worst possible time — after a death, when emotions are raw and the documents are incomplete. The work done before that point is what determines whether the family settlement is calm or contested. As an inheritance lawyer and family lawyer for will drafting in Delhi, the practice covers both ends of the cycle: structured pre-death planning (drafting, registration, executor appointment, family settlement deeds) and post-death dispute work (probate, letters of administration, succession certificates, partition suits, and challenges to wills).
Will Drafting and Pre-Death Planning
An effective will is short, internally consistent, witnessed correctly, and unambiguous about who gets what. Common pre-death planning involves: identifying assets (immovable property, bank accounts, demat holdings, ESOPs, RSUs, mutual funds, pension nominations, business interests, jewellery, intellectual property), choosing executors and alternates, addressing residuary clauses, structuring bequests for minor beneficiaries, and coordinating the will with nominations and HUF arrangements. Registration of the will is optional but is often advisable as evidentiary protection.
Where assets are spread across India and abroad, more than one will may be advisable to deal cleanly with each jurisdiction. NRIs with Indian property routinely benefit from a separate India-only will. The drafting must be careful — a later inconsistent will revokes the earlier one in part or in whole, depending on language.
For a structured intake covering these points, see the will drafting intake.
Probate, Letters of Administration, and Succession Certificates
When the testator dies, the executor named in the will applies for probate before the appropriate District Court or High Court. Where there is no will (intestacy), or the will does not name an executor, the appropriate remedy is a letter of administration. For movable assets — bank balances, fixed deposits, shares, mutual fund units — the more economical route is often a succession certificate under the Indian Succession Act, 1925. Each remedy has different procedural requirements, court fee implications, and timelines.
Contested probate matters often turn on the testator's mental capacity at execution, suspicious circumstances around drafting, the role of the propounder, the presence of natural beneficiaries left out, and the formal proof of execution under Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act read with Section 68 of the Indian Evidence Act (now Section 67 BSA).
Family Settlement Deeds
Family settlement deeds are often the cleanest way to resolve disputes among heirs without litigation, particularly where ancestral property and HUF interests are involved. A well-drafted settlement deed is binding, can be registered, and is protected from later challenge under the doctrine of family arrangement, even where strict shares would have differed. The drafting must address consideration, mutual release, future enforceability, and the position of any minor or absent beneficiary.
Inheritance Disputes and Partition
Where the will is challenged, the family arrangement breaks down, or the deceased died intestate with disputed heirs, inheritance disputes often run alongside partition suits, mutation challenges, and bank or demat-account release proceedings. Strategy and forum coordination matter — a partition suit, a probate petition, and a mutation challenge can each be running in parallel and need to be sequenced so that an order in one forum does not undercut the case in another. Where the disputed estate includes real estate, the practice coordinates with the wider property and real estate litigation work.
Personal-Law Variations
Hindu intestate succession is governed by the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (with the 2005 amendment giving daughters equal coparcenary rights). Christian and Parsi succession is governed by the Indian Succession Act, 1925. Muslim succession is governed by personal law (Hanafi or Shia, depending on the deceased), with calculated shares and limited testamentary freedom (one-third). NRIs and inter-religious marriages frequently raise additional choice-of-law issues that need to be addressed at the planning stage.
Need a will drafted, probate filed, or an inheritance dispute reviewed?
Share the relevant facts: who the testator is or was, the asset list at a high level, any existing will, the family tree, and whether litigation is already underway.