Procedure in contentious cases

Petitioner sought review of order passed by High Court under S.295 of the Succession Act, 1925, whereby in view of contentious nature of succession proceedings, application seeking issuance of letters of administration were converted into a civil suit

Contention of applicant inter alia was that impugned order, which converted proceedings into suit for administration and stated that the preliminary decree be passed was contrary to law; and the suit should be regular suit and not a suit for administration

Validity

Impugned order identified the parties and identified as to who should be the plaintiff and defendant and mentioned that the suit would be in the form of a suit for administration of the properties of the deceased and therefore all ingredients of S.295 of the Succession Act, 1925 and O.XX, C.P.C. were fully adhered to

When parties were legal heirs of the deceased and were contesting with regard to share in property left by the deceased, in such situation any one of the legal heirs could file a suit for administration of properties or file an application under S.278 of the Succession Act, 1925 for grant of "letter of administration" and in terms of S.295 of the Succession Act, 1925 in the case where there was contention, then proceedings were supposed to be converted as nearly as they could be, into a "regular suit" according to provisions of the C.P.C.

Court in the impugned order exercised powers of a court of original civil jurisdiction and once an order was passed, the court also had power to take further steps to minimize delay in disposal of dispute and the court was under a statutory obligation to pass an order for preliminary decree

Use of the word "shall" in O.XX, R.13, C.P.C. was of mandatory nature, and the C.P.C. did not envisage any other form a suit except for a suit for administration of properties under O.XX, C.P.C.

No error on the face of record was found in the impugned order

Review application was rejected, in circumstances.