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(iii) that the will was the ',outcome of unite influence and coercion exercised by the respondent. While 'the application of the respondent was pending, another application for probate of another will said to have been executed by the testator' a few months before his death was made by Kumar Dwijendra Narayan Deb. The appellants- objected to that will also on the same grounds and further added that will was a forgery 'Dwjendra Narayan did not dispute the execution 'of the will. in favour of the respondent but contended that will had been revoked by the later will in his favour. The respondent, however contended: that the '.will in favour of Kumar Dwijendra Narayan.Deb' was a for The two suits arising out of the two applications for probate were. eventually tried together by the Subordinate Judge at Gauhati. He held that the, will propounded by Kumar Dwijendra Narayan Deb was not genuine and therefore dismissed his application. As 'to the win propounded by the, respondent it was held that it was duly executed and attested and was made by the testator at a time when he had sound disposing state of mind and that it was not made under any undue influence and coercion. Consequently the application of the respondent was allowed and letters of administration With the copy of the will annexed were ordered to be issued to him.

The High Court was also conscious of the fact hat the evidence as to the execution and attestation of the will was not very adequate, for the learned chief Justice observed that the evidence on the point of actual execution might not be very adequate; but the view taken by the High Court was that more evidence was not necessary in view of the pleadings of the parties. In this connection the High Court relied on Dwijendra Narayan Deb's acceptance of the will in favour of the respondent. This in our opinion was not justified so far as the appellants were concerned, for an admission of Diwijendra Narayan Deb who must now be held to have put forward a forged will could not be an added circumstance to support the inadequate evidence led by the respondent. We are further of the opinion that the High Court was not justified in executing the inadequacy of the evidence to prove the due execution and attestation of the will on the basis of the pleadings of the parties. It is true that the appellants did not say in so many words that the will propounded by the respondent was a forgery as they did about the will propounded by Dwijendra Narayan Deb; even so the appellants had put the respondent to strict proof of due and legal execution and attestation of the will and there was an issue to that effect. This was not a case where the due and legal execution and attestation of the will was admitted and the only disputes were that the testator had not a sound disposing state of mind or had acted under undue influence or coercion. Though the appellants did not go to the length of characterising the will as a forgery as they did in the case of the will propounded by Dwijendra Narayan, they certainly put the respondent to strict proof of legal and due execution and attestation of the will. In such circumstances it was the duty of the respondent, particularly in the presence of auspicious circumstances which have been noted by the High Court, to prove the due execution and attestation of the will by satisfactory evidence which would lead Court to the conclusion that the suspicious circumstances had been dispelled. We do not see how the evidence which has been characterised by the High Court as inadequate would suffice to dispel the suspicious circumstances which undoubtedly are present in this case. We have no hesitation in coming to the conclusion, apart from the question of registration with which we shall deal presently, that it the evidence which has been produced in this case were all the evidence available to prove the due execution and attestation of the will, there could be no doubt that the respondent had failed to satisfy the Court and dispel the suspicious circumstances which were undoubtedly present in this case. Let us now turn to the registration of the will, for it is on the registration that the High Court has relied strongly to dispel whatever it also considered suspicious in this case. The contention of Mr. Desai on behalf of the appellants in this connection is that registration may be an added circumstance in favour of the genuineness of the will and may be taken into account in considering whether suspicious circumstances had been dispelled, but the High Court was not right on the facts of this case in relying mainly on the registration to hold that all suspicions relating to this unnatural will had been dispelled. There is no doubt that this will was registered on January 27, 1944, and there is an endorsement on the will to the effect that the testator had admitted the execution of it. It will therefore be necessary to examine the circumstances more closely than the High Court seems to have done in this case. It appears that an application was made by the mukhtar-i-am of the testator (and not by the testator himself) on January 16, 1944, before the Sub-Registrar for registration of the will on commission. The Sub-Registrar himself did not go to execute the commission but sent a clerk of his named Arabali, though the reason given in the application for the issue of commission viz., respectability was not justified in law and no commission should have been issued at all. This clerk was apparently a resident of the same area in which the testator was living and knew him from before. It is a matter worthy of note in the circumstances of this case the person who went to inquire from the testator whether he had executed the will was not the Sub-Registrar himself who would be a more responsible officer than his clerk. Anyhow, the evidence of the clerk is that he found the testator quite hale and hearty. The testator came out from the inner apartment to the verandah of the house and admitted the execution of the will. Thereafter the testator signed at the bottom of the will in token of his having admitted the genuineness of the will and Dehiram Bora identified the testator. Thereafter Arabali took the document to the office of the Sub-Registrar and it was registered. It is on this registration that the High Court has relied very strongly for dispelling the suspicion arising in this case. Before we consider the evidence on this aspect of the matter further, we should like to refer to a point which seems to have weighed with the High Court in judging the value of registration. The High Court thought that four witnesses signed the will at the time of its registration. It is not quite clear what the High Court meant by this, namely whether the High Court thought that these four witnesses also attested the will ; but a perusal of the will transcribed in the record (Ex. 3) shows that this is not correct, for the only person who signed at the bottom of the will at the time of the visit of Arabali besides Arabali himself and the testator, was Dehiram Bora. Learned counsel for the respondent was unable to satisfy us how the High Court got the impression that four witnesses had signed at the bottom of the will presumably as a matter of attestation when the registration clerk came on commission. We must therefore proceed on the footing that the High Court was not right in the view that four persons had signed the will, whatever that may mean, when Arabali came for registration ; and insofar as the High Court judgment was influenced by this circumstance, it suffers from an infirmity. However, let us look at what actually happened when Arabali came for the registration of the will. Arabali's own statement on this point is that he examined Chandra Narayan Deb (i.e. the testator) at Majikuchi who admitted the execution of the will. This is all that Arabali has said in this connection. There is nothing in the evidence to show that the will was read over to the testator or was read by him before he admitted execution of it. What exactly passed between Arabali and the testator at this time has also not been given by Arabali and the exact words used by him in this connection and the exact reply of the testator are also absent from the evidence. It is true that it is broadly stated by Arabali that he examined the testator who admitted the execution of the will. That in our opinion is hardly sufficient in a case of this kind to dispel the serious suspicion which attaches to the due execution and attestation of this will. Further the evidence of Arabali is that Dehiram Bora identified the testator. That is all the part assigned by Arabali to Dehiram Bora, besides the fact that Dehiram Bora signed at the bottom of the will thereafter. Arabali does not say that Dehiram Bora was present when the testator had admitted the execution of the will or that the testator signed at the bottom of the will in the presence of Dehiram Bora and Dehiram Bora signed it in the presence of the testator. of course, Arabali does say that the testator signed at the bottom of the will in his presence, though he does not say that he signed it in the presence of the testator. We are referring to this aspect of the matter, for it. has been urged that even if the execution and attestation of December 29, 1943, is, open to doubt the will must be held to be duly executed and attested before Arabali and Dehiram Bora.