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Showing contexts for: modi script in Ramchandra Rambux vs Champabai And Others on 17 February, 1964Matching Fragments
The High Court has further pointed out that the document is inscribed on a flimsy paper. It is in high-flown Urdu, and is alleged to have been dictated by him in that language. No doubt, the evidence indicates that Ramdhan could speak in Urdu, but it also indicates that he cannot read or write in Urdu. It would, therefore, be legitimate to infer that the language which he could speak was the unlettered man's Urdu and not high-flown Urdu. which contains an admixture of Persian words. Indeed, such words have actually been used in this document. The signature of Ramdban is itself in Modi script, which would not have been the case if were well-versed in Urdu. When we turn to the reverse of the sheet on which the document is inscribed, we find that as we go lower down, more and more words seem to be crammed in each line and the spacing between two lines tends to decrease, even though there appears to have been plenty of room for the signature of Ramdhan to be scribed lower down on the paper. It would be legitimate to infer from this that the signature was already there before the will was scribed. This feature of the document as well as the quality of the paper used would suggest that a piece of paper bearing Ramdhan's signature has been utilised by the scribe for engrossing what purports to be a will. Finally, there is the circumstance that the will is un- natural in the sense that though Ramdhan left property worth several lakhs, he made no provision for a residence for his wife but gave her only Rs. 40/- per month as her maintenance, and made only paltry bequests to his daughters. It is true that the daughters are married in affluent families, but in the absence of a male issue, a father is normally expected to give at least substantial bequests to his daughters. Instead, the wiil gives almost the entire property to a distant relative, who, it may be noticed, was neither brought up by the testator, nor was a person who looked after the testator during, his declining years. All this is said to have been due to the fact that Ramdhan's relations with his wife had become strained. Indeed, the relationship between Ramdhan and his wife had become so bad that Ramdhan, according to the appellant, suspected that she was trying to poison him. Curiously enough, in spite of this, Ramdhan continued to live with Sitabai right till his death, and had made no arrangement for a person other than her to take charge of the cash and the gold and silver ornaments of the value of a couple of lakhs of rupees or so, in the event of his dying suddenly. There is nothing to suggest that Ramdhan's food was cooked by any one other than Sitabai.