Codicil — Amending a Will

Registration optional

When a codicil is the right instrument

Where the will as a whole still reflects your intentions and only one thing has changed — an executor who can no longer act, a legatee to add, a single bequest to alter, an asset acquired or disposed of — a codicil deals with it without disturbing the rest.

When to rewrite the will instead

Where there have already been one or two codicils, or where the change affects several clauses, a fresh will revoking all earlier instruments is cleaner. A will read alongside three codicils, each amending the last, is exactly the document that gets litigated. As a rule of thumb: one clean change, a codicil; anything more, a new will.

Registration

Registration of a codicil is optional, as it is for a will. If the will was registered, register the codicil too — otherwise the registered record shows a will that no longer says what you intend, and the unregistered codicil that corrects it is the very document most likely to be challenged.

Keep the codicil with the will. A codicil found without the will it amends, or a will found without a codicil that was known to exist, causes serious difficulty.

Drafted here, in Gujarati or English

Drafted by an advocate of 35+ years rather than filled into a downloaded template, e-stamped at a Government authorised centre, and notarised in the same visit. If the parties read Gujarati, the document is drafted in Gujarati — not translated out of an English form, because legal Gujarati has its own settled vocabulary and a literal translation frequently means something looser.

What to bring

• The existing will
• Registration details if the will was registered
• A note of exactly what is to change
• Photo ID
• Details of two proposed witnesses who are not beneficiaries

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