Whether the court can restrain wife restricted by will of her husband to dispose of property by the sale to dispose of it by gift?

The Court while construing the clauses of a will held that the interpretation has to be one which solemnly gives effect to the wishes of the deceased person and the will cannot be construed in the same manner as commercial contract or agreement. Accordingly, on an overall conspectus of the will, the Court in the aforesaid context extended the restriction contained in the will on the sale of the property by the surviving wife, to a gift by her as well, even though in the technical sense a ‘gift’ was distinct from a ‘sale’.

IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI

CS (OS) 191/2016, IAs Nos. 5040/2016 

Decided On: 23.04.2020

 Kamal Parti  Vs.   Raj Kumar Parti and Ors.

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:

Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, J.

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Leading Supreme court judgment on interpretation of will

 (1) The following are the established principles for construing the language of the Will.

(a) In construing a document whether in English or in vernacular the fundamental rule is to ascertain the intention from the words used; the surrounding circumstances being considered to find out the intended meaning of such words employed therein. [927F-G]

(b) In construing the language of the Will the court is entitled to put itself into the testator's armchair and is bound to bear in mind also other matters than merely the words used like the surrounding circumstances, the position of the testator, his family relationship, the probability that he would use words in a particular sense-all as an aid to arriving at a right construction of the Will, and to ascertain the meaning of its language when used by that particular testator in that document.

(c) The true intention of the testator has to be gathered not by attaching importance to isolated expressions but by reading the Will as a whole with all its provisions and ignoring none of them as redundant or contradictory. 

(d) The court must accept, if possible, such construction as would give to every expression some effect rather than that which would render any of 

the expression inoperative. The court will look at the circumstances under which the testator makes his Will, such as the state of his property, of his family and the like. Where apparently conflicting dispositions can be reconciled by giving full effect to every word used in a document, such a construction should be accepted instead of a construction which would have the effect of cutting down the clear meaning of the words used by the testator. Further, where one of the two reasonable constructions would lead to intestacy, that should be discarded in favour of a construction which does not create and such hiatus. [928C-E] (e) It is one of the cardinal principles of construction of Wills that to the extent that it is legally possible effect should be given to every disposition contained in the Will unless the law prevents effect being given to it. Of course, if there are two repugnant provisions conferring successive interests, if the first interest created is valid the subsequent interest cannot take effect but a court of construction will proceed to the farthest extent to avoid repugnancy, so that effect could be given as far as possible to every testamentary intention contained in the Will. [928E-G]

Supreme Court of India

Navneet Lal Alias Rangi vs Gokul And Others on 9 December, 1975

BENCH:
GOSWAMI, P.K.
MATHEW, KUTTYIL KURIEN
UNTWALIA, N.L.

Equivalent citations: 1976 AIR 794, 1976 SCR (2) 924

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