A mother of three well-settled children had expressed a desire to donate her spacious flat to a needy relative, an idea her offspring didn't exactly welcome. Imagining she couldn't see through their ploy, her children began to behave overly affectionate while dropping subtle hints about blood being thicker than water. "The problem occurs when they employ emotional blackmail, persuasion or coercion to ensure that their selfish ends are met," says the lady. Incurring the risk of family discord, she went ahead and willed her flat to her relative anyway.

She was wise enough to remove the ambiguity that would crop up regarding the ownership of her property after her. But there's no law wherein a person bequeathing property has to prepare a will. Advocate Kartik Aiyer works with the legal cell ofthe Dignity Foundation and counsels those who call the Dignity Helpline. He says, "It's not like a driver's licence which is mandatory if you have to drive a car. It is just a legal declaration by the maker which concerns the distribution of his property after death." For this reason it is not necessary to prepare a will on stamp paper. An ordinary piece of paper is just as valid. "Neither is one expected to use legal jargon," says Aiyer. "After all, an ordinary person will use common language." Isn't a lawyer required to be present? "No! It is not as formal as Hindi films would have you believe! Usually, only people who have a lot of property choose to prepare a formal will in the presence of their lawyer.

Otherwise, only two witnesses must be present, and these may or may not be family members of the person who is preparing the will," he clarifies. "One may also nominate an executor whose responsibility is to ensure that the will is obeyed after one is no more. This executor could even be a nominee,"Aiyer adds. What scope exists for the executor to manipulate or distort the contents of the will? "Not much, really. After all, he will call a meeting of all the nominees and tell them what shall accrue to them. Of course, it doesn't matter if all the nominees cannot be present. They get their share anyway."

A will can be changed. T C Narayan, chief executive of Dignity Foundation, talks about a mother of two sons who wanted to debar her older son from inheriting her property. "The lady was a Hindu. Her older son married a Muslim girl and converted to Islam. Earlier, she had prepared a will in favour of both children, but now she wanted to exclude the older son and daughter-in-law. She asked us if that was possible, and we told her it was."

But didn't her older son have a share in the property? "No. It was self-made property. She hadn't inherited it from her ancestors. So she could do what she liked with it."

A will is not only open to criticism and debate, but also litigation. Aiyer says, "If a mandies without providing for his wife and minor children, whom he is bound to provide for, they may contest the will in court. The verdict of the court is binding upon all parties. There have been cases where the will has been overturned by the courts in favour of a dependent who was not left anything."

Different Acts of law govern a will depending upon the religion and individual status of the person who is making it. "Whereas an oral will is permitted by Muslims, a Hindu is required to make a will in writing if it has to be acceptable. If an inter-religious marriage is involved, the Special Marriage Act or the Indian Succession Act becomes applicable. When one gets into the litigation process one discovers that different Acts govern different cases," says Aiyer. This would not happen if India had a uniform civil code.