Types of Will:
a) Privileged and Unprivileged Wills:
Indian Succession Act, 1925 provides certain privileges to a soldier, an airman and a mariner at sea employed in an expedition or engaged in actual warfare. These privileges are enacted keeping in mind the complicated predicament a soldier is in during the tenure of his service. Provisions pertaining to such privileges are mentioned under section 66 of the Act and such wills are called Privileged Wills(Section 65 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925). Provisions allowing word of mouth in presence of witnesses to be considered as valid will and written instructions to be considered as a valid will after the death of a soldier are some of the prime examples of such privileges.
Wills created by a testator not being a soldier, an airman and a mariner at sea employed in an expedition or engaged in actual warfare are known as Unprivileged Wills. Unprivileged Wills are governed under section 63 of the Act.
b) Contingent/Conditional Wills:
Execution of these wills are dependent on happening of an event and if that event occurs in the future only then the will is to become effective. These wills are created for multiple purposes. If the testator wants to motivate a loved one for doing something good, like 'my son will get my property only if he graduates from his law school with a 70% score' or want to make safe appropriations of his property in case of his death while touring abroad, he can make a contingency regarding the same in his will. Any condition which is contrary to the law or is invalid in nature cannot be incorporated in a will.
c) Joint Wills
When two or more people agree to make a conjoint will, such testamentary documents are known as Joint Wills. These are generally created between married couples, with an intention to leave the property to their spouse after one of them dies. A joint will can also be created with an intention to take effect after the death of all the testators. In such Joint Wills till all the testators are alive, a single testator cannot revoke the will alone. He/ She would require the consent of other testators to revoke their joint will. Only when all other testators have died, the sole surviving testator can revoke the will alone.
d) Mutual Wills
Mutual wills are the kind of wills in which two people agree to formulate a will on the mutually agreed terms and conditions. The testator creates the other person as his/her legatee in these wills. Generally, married couples who have children from their first marriage create such wills to ensure the interest of those children. The terms and conditions of the will remain binding on the surviving partner after the death of first partner. Mutual Will helps to ensure that the property passes on to the children of the deceased and not a new spouse of the surviving partner in case they remarry.
e) Duplicate Wills
As the name suggests, when there are two copies of a will, then those wills are called Duplicate Wills. There are two copies of the will although it is considered as a single will. It is very simple to create a duplicate of the will. The testator has to make a second copy of the will and shall sign it and get it attested in the way that he did for the original will as per Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925. One copy can be kept with the testator and the other might be kept in safe custody somewhere like in a bank locker, with a trustee, the drafting attorney or with the executor. The testator with an intention to protect the execution of the will after his death makes a copy of the will. If the testator destroys the copy of the will that he has in his custody then, that would automatically revoke the other will.
Duplicate wills are strong and valid proof of the testamentary objectives until the original will is not on record. Otherwise, the authenticity of the duplicate will remain questionable. Presumption that the original will stands revoked will prevail in case original will is not filed with the duplicate copy in petition for probate.
f) Concurrent Wills
Normally a testator prepares a single will for his/her testamentary declarations. The testator according to his wish or for the sake of convenience can make different wills for the property located in different geographical locations. Hence, co-existing wills, dealing with testamentary declarations of a single testator are known as Concurrent Wills.