Registration optional
What section 63 actually requires
Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 requires the testator to sign, and the will to be attested by two or more witnesses, each of whom has seen the testator sign, and each of whom signs in the testator's presence. It adds expressly that no particular form of attestation shall be necessary, and that it is not necessary that more than one witness be present at the same time — useful where the family is scattered.
Note what is not there: no stamp duty is payable on a will; registration is optional under section 18(e) of the Registration Act, 1908; and section 63 does not mention notarisation.
A notary may lawfully prepare a will — Rule 11(8) of the Notaries Rules, 1956 says so expressly — and may attest execution under section 8(1)(a) of the Notaries Act, 1952. But notarisation will not rescue a will that fails section 63, and adds nothing to one that satisfies it. What your will needs is two attesting witnesses who saw you sign.
The witness mistake that disinherits people
Do not use a beneficiary, or a beneficiary's spouse, as an attesting witness. Section 67 voids a bequest to a person who attests the will, to their spouse, and to anyone claiming under either of them. The will survives; the gift to that person does not. (Section 67 governs wills under the Indian Succession Act; it does not apply to Muslim wills, which are governed by personal law.)
Choose two independent adults likely to be alive and traceable later, record their full addresses, and where the testator is elderly or unwell consider a doctor as one of them or a contemporaneous note on capacity. Wills are almost always challenged on capacity or undue influence, and evidence gathered on the day is worth far more than argument years afterwards.
What a good will contains
- Revocation of all earlier wills and codicils
- A declaration of sound mind, made freely
- An executor, named, with an alternative
- The property identified precisely — survey numbers, account numbers, folio numbers. "My house in Vadodara" is an invitation to litigate
- Beneficiaries identified by full name and relationship, not "my eldest son"
- A residuary clause — estates always contain something the testator forgot
- Provision for a beneficiary who predeceases
- A testamentary guardian for minor children, if relevant
- Date, signature on every page, and the attestation clause
Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 barred an executor or legatee from establishing a right in court without probate or letters of administration, for certain classes of will. It was omitted by the Repealing and Amending Act, 2025 (Act 37 of 2025), assented on 20 December 2025, so that bar is gone. Two cautions before anyone relies on it: the amendment is recent and untested in court, and accrued rights and pending proceedings are saved. Section 213 never applied in Vadodara in any event — its bar was confined to the classes of will in section 57(a) and (b). Institutions may still ask for probate under their own practice.
Should you register it?
Optional, and worth doing. A registered will is easier to prove, harder to suppress and much harder to attack as a fabrication. The counter-argument is privacy. If you register the will, register any codicil too.
Full guide: how to make a will that holds up →
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
- A list of your assets with identifying details — property, accounts, policies, shares
- Full names and relationships of everyone you wish to benefit
- The name of your intended executor
- Photo ID
- Details of any earlier will