"I and my children were beaten and kicked out of our house by the
brothers-in-law. We live by begging, in continual fear"
Widow's Stories
Esther ’s story
The story of Esther is told by Mary the ASHISH lawyer
Esther is an illiterate widow about 65 years old. She had five children - three daughters and two sons – one of whom died. She lives with her eldest daughter Pushpa in one room of the house left to her by her husband. .
Esther’s husband Raja was a fitter on the railways. One day after he
retired he went to hospital for a medical check up and that same day wrote
his will - his children were aware of this. He died during the night. Esther
called a family meeting because there were debts to be paid off - mainly to
do with expenses incurred in the marriage of the two younger daughters and
medical treatment for her son who died. But, despite having a job at
the Railways and being the only financially sound person in the family, her
only living son refused to help. He told his mother to sell the two rooms of
the house to pay off the debts. He then turned round and filed a suit for partition
of the property into eight equal shares!
Esther was asked to appear in court but her poverty meant she could not engage an advocate. So ASHISH agreed to help her contest the case. When it came to court I cross examined the son and witnesses. It was clear that they were not telling the truth but we had to ask for an adjournment so we could get more information.
Our basic argument was that Esther’s late husband acquired the property through his own earnings and left it to his wife, therefore the children are not entitled to have the property partitioned. I had to take great pains to find the witnesses Esther said knew about the will. Since they were not willing to come forward, I had to issue witness summons. One witness confirmed that he had signed the will as a witness and also said that he had seen Esther’s husband sign it too. We then summoned the notary who notarized the will. He testified that Esther’s late husband had come to his office and executed the will in his presence and he had notarized it. Unfortunately, he also testified that apart from Raja, he did not see anyone else sign on the will. This was bad news for us, because if the witness had signed the will after the will was notarized the Court might set it aside.
During the course of the trial Esther became bed ridden with high blood pressure
and high sugar count and is unable to even to get up. Her daughter Pushpa was
taking care of her but with her own family to look after, she is unable to
take on the burden of a completely bedridden mother.
The judgement: Esther’s plea that the will was executed in her favour was not accepted. The court took the view that the will was fabricated on the grounds that it was executed by Raja on the way back from hospital on the day he died. This judgement is curious since all the parties agreed that Raja had written a will. An appeal has to be filed against the order by the Court ordering partition into eight equal shares.
ANALYSIS :
The case has caused me considerable pain as it is a prime example of property
being manipulated by the husband or the son of a widow. Esther
is fighting for a roof over her head. The house in question has two rooms,
one of which she sold to meet her debts, leaving her with a small room. She
requires constant care but her poor health is not apparently of any concern
of her son or her daughter in law. Her eldest daughter does what she
can, and if she is able to retain the small room, her daughter will help her
in the expectation of getting the room on her death. If she loses it,
she has nothing to fall back upon and her daughter will withdraw support. This
is the general condition of all widows in India, they 
are looked after as long
as they have property to give. When that property or its proceeds are gone,
they are thrown out on the street.
The stand taken in the judgement by the Learned Judge that the will could not have been executed on the same day as Esther’s husband’s death displays the inherent prejudice society shows towards women inheriting property from their husbands.