In a rare order, the Madras High Court has directed its Registry to lodge a police complaint against a litigant for having filed a false affidavit before the court, seeking revocation of a probate granted by the court to the legal heirs of a landowner to inherit all movable and immovable properties, left behind, on the basis of the landowner’s will.
Justice C.V. Karthikeyan directed the Joint Registrar (Original Side) to lodge the criminal complaint against Brother C. Doss, 51, of Karunyam Mission (Trust) at Zion Nagar, Pattamandri, Tiruvallur district, a third party to the case, “for presenting an affidavit which is evidently false and trying to influence the flow of administration of justice.”
The judge also dismissed the application taken out by the litigant to revoke the probate and made it clear that the complaint against him should be lodged before the jurisdictional police for necessary action in the manner known to law. He was fully convinced that the litigant had made utterly false statements under a solemn oath.
“I hold that the applicant herein had deliberately come to the court with a false statement and necessary process must be issued to initiate criminal proceedings by the High Court against him for presenting an affidavit with false statement,” the judge said and feared that grave prejudice would have been caused if the court had proceeded with his application.
S. Rajesh, counsel for the legal heirs, brought it to the notice of the court that a person named S. Ganapathy of Kolathur in Chennai owned about 4,861 square feet of land worth over ₹1.2 crore besides leaving behind some balance in his bank account as well as certain savings in the local post office. His wife had predeceased him and the couple was issueless.
Therefore, he executed a will on January 28, 2018 bequeathing the self-acquired properties to his sister (class II legal heir) and another person. After his death at a private hospital in Kilpauk, Chennai on May 27, 2018, a petition was filed in the High Court seeking probate and it had impleaded all legal heirs including the sister of the deceased and her children. After perusing all relevant documents and also examining a witness who had attested the will, the High Court granted the probate on October 22, 2019.
However, in his present application to cancel it, Br. Doss claimed that the deceased landowner had executed a registered will in 2003 itself bequeathing the land in favour of the Trust. On the other hand, Mr. Rajesh brought it to the notice of the court that the sub-registrar at Periamet had categorically denied any such will having been registered in 2003. When Justice Karthikeyan directed the applicant to produce the original will reportedly executed in 2003, he replied that the original was already submitted in the High Court.
“No such document had ever been lodged before the Madras High Court. It could not be lodged because there is no such document bearing registration No.126/2003 in the Office of the Sub Registrar, Periamet. Obviously, the applicant has come to the court with a false case,” the judge wrote and found him to have also indulged in forgery.
“After further enquiry, it had been concluded that the applicant herein had committed an act of forgery by creating a false death certificate, a false legal heirship certificate, a false Will and by creating false signatures to the said Will which had been so created by influencing other people to act as attestors,” the judge said and ordered a police inquiry.
