Report No. 19

29. Insertion of new section for Jammu and Kashmir.-

A suggestion has been made by the Government of Jammu & Kashmir that grants of probate or letters of administration made by the High Court for that State to the Administrator-General should be effective in the other States in India also. Correspondingly, that Government propose to insert a provision in its own Bill on the subject to the effect that probate or letters of administration granted by the High Court of States other than by the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir shall have the same effect as it should have if the grant had been made by the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir.

We agree with the suggestion. Where a person leaves properties both in Jammu & Kashmir and in the rest of India, it will be convenient if the entire estate is administered by the Administrator-General-either the Administrator-General of Jammu & Kashmir or the Administrator-General of any State in the rest of India. The matter would be dealt with on the basis of reciprocity, and therefore there can be no objection to the acceptance of the suggestion.

It is, of course, not permissible to provide in our Act that a certificate granted by a High Court in India will have effect in the State of Jammu & Kashmir; the reason is, that the power of Parliament to legislate on the subject is derived from Article 245 and 246(2) read with entry 11 in the concurrent list in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution, and that entry is not applicable to Jammu & Kashmir. Therefore, the provisions for making effective the grants made by other High Courts will have to be made in the Jammu & Kashmir Bill.

But the provision, making a grant made by the High Court for Jammu & Kashmir effective in other parts of India, can be made by Parliament. We may, in this connection, invite attention to the provisions of section 382 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 (as amended by Act 34 of 1957) read with section 380 under which, where a, certificate in the prescribed form has been granted to a resident within the State of Jammu & Kashmir by the District Judge of that State, etc., the certificate shall have the same effect in India as a certificate granted under Part X of the Succession Act. We recommend that the provisions on the lines desired by the Government of Jammu & Kashmir may be incorporated.