Probate is a grant by a competent court certifying that the will is genuine and authorising the executor to administer the estate. The law here has just changed, and a great deal of advice still in circulation is out of date.
Two related grants sit alongside it. Probate is granted under Section 222 only to an executor appointed by the will, expressly or by necessary implication. Where the will names no executor, or the executor has died, refuses or is incapable, Section 232 allows a universal or residuary legatee to prove the will and take letters of administration with the will annexed. Where there is no will at all, the grant is plain letters of administration.
What the law used to require
Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 barred a person from establishing any right as executor or legatee under a will unless probate or letters of administration had been granted. For Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains it bit only where the will was made within the territories of the former Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal, or within the ordinary original civil jurisdiction of the High Courts of Madras and Bombay, or related to immovable property situated there. In practice: effectively compulsory for wills connected with Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai, and not compulsory elsewhere, including Bengaluru.
The Repealing and Amending Act, 2025 omitted Section 213 and its former barrier. Probate and letters of administration remain available. Other provisions, including Sections 212 and 214 where applicable, were not abolished by that omission. Existing proceedings require examination of the amendment's savings and the particular procedural issue; the omission is not a reason to abandon a pending case without review.
Why you may still want probate
Repealing the compulsion does not remove the usefulness. Take a grant where:
- The will is likely to be contested. A grant obtained after notice to the heirs is far stronger evidence than an unprobated will.
- A bank, company, depository or registrar insists on it before transferring assets. Check the applicable law and directions before accepting that demand. RBI's 2025 deceased-customer directions provide bank-claim routes that do not always require probate or a succession certificate.
- The estate is large or complex, or there are minor beneficiaries.
- There are multiple wills, or doubt about which is the last.
The process in outline
A petition to the District Court or High Court having jurisdiction, with the original will, the death certificate, a schedule of assets, and the details of the heirs. Citations are issued to the heirs and published. If nobody objects, the grant follows. If someone objects, the petition converts into a testamentary suit, which is contested litigation with evidence.
The statute is more specific than that summary suggests, and the specifics are where petitions get returned. Under Section 276 the petition must be written in English or in the language in ordinary use in that court, with the will annexed, and must state the time of the testator's death, that the annexed writing is his last will, that it was duly executed, the amount of assets likely to come to the petitioner's hands, and that the petitioner is the executor named. It must also state that the deceased had a fixed place of abode or property within the judge's jurisdiction. Section 278 sets the parallel contents for a letters of administration petition, including the family or other relatives of the deceased and their residences.
Section 283 is the citation provision. The Judge may examine the petitioner on oath, require further evidence of due execution, and issue citations calling upon all persons claiming an interest in the estate to come and see the proceedings. The citation is fixed in a conspicuous part of the court house and in the office of the Collector of the district, and otherwise published as the Judge directs. When contention follows, Section 295 provides that the proceedings take the form of a regular suit under the Civil Procedure Code, with the petitioner as plaintiff and the objector as defendant. That is the testamentary suit, and it is why an uncontested petition takes months and a contested one takes years.
The court fee, and the one year rule
In Karnataka the fee is governed by the Karnataka Court-Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1958, and it is usually the largest single cost. The application must be accompanied by a valuation of the estate in duplicate in the prescribed form, a copy of which the court sends to the Deputy Commissioner of the district in which the estate lies. The fee is charged ad valorem on the market value of the estate under Schedule I, and no grant is made until the court is satisfied it has been paid on the net value.
The third is the one worth planning around. Where the application is made within one year of the date of death, the fee is computed on the market value of the estate as on the date of death. Where it is made after that year, it is computed on the value as on the date of the application. For Bengaluru property that has appreciated since the death, the difference is real money, and it is entirely within your control. The rates are slabbed and are a State levy that gets revised, so take the current slab from the court's office or your advocate before you value the petition.
If there is no will
The equivalent grant is letters of administration. For debts and securities specifically, a succession certificate is the usual and much simpler remedy.
Where a succession certificate has already been taken for property in the estate and probate or letters of administration are later granted over the same estate, the fee on the later grant is reduced by the fee already paid on the certificate, so the two are not charged twice over.
Where this is filed in Bengaluru
Testamentary matters go before the District Judge, and in Bengaluru that is the City Civil Court, where they are numbered and listed as probate and succession certificate matters. File with the original will, the death certificate, the valuation and schedule of assets, the addresses of every heir to be cited, and an affidavit in support. If an attesting witness is alive, keep them in contact; the difference between an unopposed grant in months and a stalled petition is usually the availability of one witness.
Two things to decide before you file. First, whether you need a grant at all, after the removal of Section 213's particular bar; our note on why probate is no longer mandatory sets out when the institution holding the asset will still insist. Second, whether the will will withstand the citation stage, since a badly executed will is better identified before the fee is paid; our guide on how to make a will in India lists the defects that surface at that point.