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Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 — Section 103: Saving of provisions of Indian Succession Act relating to wills

§ SECTION 103 · BSA 2023 · CHAPTER VI — EXCLUSION OF ORAL BY DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE

Saving of provisions of Indian Succession Act relating to wills

A saving clause — and the close of Chapter VI. Nothing in this Chapter is to affect the provisions of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 on how wills are construed.

How to read Section 103

Chapter VI’s evidence rules give way to the succession-law canons for construing wills.

This Chapter

§§ 94–102 govern how documents are proved and when oral evidence is excluded or admitted.

The saving

None of that is to affect the Indian Succession Act, 1925 provisions on the construction of wills.

The boundary

Confined to the construction of wills under that Act — not documents generally.

The bare Act

The section in its own words — a single saving sentence, with no illustration.

Section 103 · verbatim

Nothing in this Chapter shall be taken to affect any of the provisions of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 (39 of 1925) as to the construction of wills.

In short: Chapter VI has laid down general rules on proving documents and on shutting out oral evidence that would vary a writing. Wills are different. A testator cannot be called to explain his words — he is dead — so the law has long given wills their own settled canons of construction, now housed in the Indian Succession Act, 1925. This section makes clear that nothing in Chapter VI cuts down those special rules: where a will is being construed, the Succession Act governs. The saving touches only construction — wills must still be proved like any other document.

→ This carries forward IEA 1872 § 100 — the wills-construction saving.

Glossary

saving clause

A provision that preserves another law from being affected.

this Chapter

Chapter VI (§§ 94–102) — oral versus documentary evidence.

Indian Succession Act, 1925

Act 39 of 1925 — the code governing wills and succession.

construction of wills

How a will’s words are read and given effect.

shall be taken to affect

Shall be read as altering or overriding.

construction

Interpretation — settling the meaning and effect of the words.

The picture

The Chapter’s rules stop at the door of the will — the Succession Act governs its construction.

Chapter VI rules§§ 94–102: documentvs oral evidencedoes NOT affectIndian SuccessionAct, 1925governs the CONSTRUCTIONof willswills keep their own canons of construction — the Chapter’s rules give way

The section, part by part

Tap a part — the picture-story tells it first; the word-by-word text and example follow.

the savingChapter VI does not affect the Succession Act rules on construing wills

In one lineNothing in Chapter VI is to affect the Indian Succession Act, 1925 provisions on the construction of wills.
1Chapter VI ruleson evidence ofdocuments2meet a WILLbeing read andconstrued3→ the 1925 Actgoverns — Ch VIdoes not affect itfor construing a will, the Succession Act’s own rules prevail
Nothing in this Chapter shall be taken to affectnone of Chapter VI’s rules overrides…the §§ 94–102 rules on documentary and oral evidence are not to cut down…
any of the provisions of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 (39 of 1925) as to the construction of wills.→ the Succession Act’s wills-construction rules…the Indian Succession Act, 1925 provisions on how wills are construed — those stand untouched.
ExampleA will’s words are ambiguous. The court applies the Succession Act’s own canons of construction to settle their meaning — Chapter VI’s documentary-evidence limits do not narrow them.
✗ Not thisThis does not exempt wills from being proved like other documents. It saves only the 1925 Act’s rules on their construction — the reading and effect of the words.

why wills are specialThe testator is gone — the Act supplies the rules of reading

In one lineA will speaks after the maker has died and cannot explain himself — so succession law has long given wills their own settled canons of construction, which this Chapter leaves in place.
ordinary documentsread under Chapter VI’sevidence ruleswillsconstrued under theSuccession Act, 1925two tracks of construction — the Act’s canons are reserved for wills
ExampleSuccession law has rules for a will that fails to dispose of everything, or names a beneficiary loosely. Those 1925 Act rules decide the outcome — not the general documentary-evidence provisions of this Chapter.
✗ Not thisThe saving is narrow: it preserves the Act’s rules on construction of wills only — it is not a general escape from Chapter VI for every testamentary document or dispute.

Connected provisions

§ 94

Terms in writing

The Chapter’s core — a contract reduced to a document is proved by the document.

§ 102

Who may give evidence

Strangers may prove a contemporaneous varying agreement.

§ 104 · next

Burden of proof

Chapter VII begins — who must prove a fact for the court to believe it.

lineage

IEA 1872, § 100

Carried forward — the wills-construction saving.