Kerala High Court dismisses petition over frivolous plea
The Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed the petition of a teacher observing that it is not expected of a teacher to file a frivolous writ petition due to personal animosity.
The petitioner, Vivekanandan K.S., had moved the Kerala High Court seeking a direction to police to investigate the role of six relatives of his in the death of his paternal aunt Bhargavi on November 15, 2019. The petitioner had requested police to investigate if there had been foul play behind her death but it didn’t end in a probe, which is when the petitioner approached the High Court.
The petitioner’s aunt Bhargavi was a spinster and had assets in the form of immovable properties and cash deposits. Throughout her life, Bhargavi had stayed with the petitioner’s parents. On 24.01.1992, Bhargavi had executed a will bequeathing all her properties to the petitioner. On 14.03.2000, she executed a second Will, bequeathing the properties to the children to be born to the petitioner and reserved the petitioner’s right to take income from the property. A third Will was executed on 25.10.2003, bequeathing the properties in the name of Seema, Beena, and Leena who were the siblings of the petitioner. By this time, there was rivalry among the siblings and the petitioner was driven out of the house and a partition deed executed on 22.10.2003 between the petitioner’s father and Bhargavi. Aggrieved by his ouster from the parental house, the petitioner filed a partition suit arraying his parents, aunt Bhargavi and siblings as defendants. Later, a 4th Will was executed by Bhargavi on 1.12.2011, bequeathing all the amounts in her bank accounts to the petitioner’s sisters.
According to the petitioner, Bhargavi had executed the 3rd and 4th wills succumbing to the pressure exerted by his sisters and was actually contemplating the execution of a 5th and final Will, making the petitioner the sole legatee. While so Bhargavi died on 15.11.2019 at 7.30 a.m, which according to the petitioner, was under mysterious circumstances. The petitioner alleges that the body of Bhargavi was cremated hurriedly at 12.55 p.m on the same day at the Shanthikavadam Gas Crematorium so as to defeat investigation into the death.
A Single-Judge Bench of Justice V.G. Arun while considering the submission of the petitioner noted that other than the allegation of Bhargavi having been cremated at the Santhikavadam Gas Crematorium which is 30 km from the place of demise, no other suspicious circumstances have been stated in the writ petition.
The Court held from Will dated 01.12.2011, that Bhargavi was aged 81 years, as on the date of execution of Will. Therefore, she would have been 90 by the time she died. As such, in the absence of clear and cogent evidence to the contrary, this Court can only presume that Bhargavi had died of natural causes.
The averments leave no room for doubt that the motive behind filing the writ petition is the Petitioner’s ouster from his house and vesting of the properties of his deceased aunt with his siblings, observed the Court.
The High Court while dismissing the Petition said, “The Petitioner claims to be a teacher and, if so, I am compelled to observe that a teacher is not expected to file frivolous writ petition of this nature, motivated by personal animosity. The conduct of the petitioner is to say the least, reprehensible. Since the writ petition is being dismissed at the admission stage, I refrain from imposing cost.”
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