It takes effect after the death of the testator: A gift to take effect during the life time of the donor is a deed of settlement and not Will. It is revocable during the life time .of the testator: Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act provides that a Will is liable to be revoked or altered by the maker of it at any time when he is competent to dispose of his property by Will. The essential characteristics of a Will is its revocability.

Drafting a Will can be an intricate exercise. It requires, both knowledge of succession laws applicable to different Indian communities and experience as also a well cultivated imagination. The draftsman must consider the circumstances of the Testator not only at the time of preparing the Will but also foresee the circumstances that may prevail at the time of the Testator's death. Before drafting a Will, one should endeavor to ascertain the following:

• The various moveable and immoveable properties of the Testator and their geographic locations;
• The description and locations of various specific properties that the testator desires to dispose off to specific persons or generally.
• The names and relationships of various persons in the testator's family
• The names and relationships of various persons whom the testator desires to benefit and / or exclude under his Will.
• The domicile of the Testator.

The law of the Country which will govern the Will should be carefully studied before drafting the Will. The disposition of immovable property in most countries is governed by the law of the Country in which the immovable property is situated and the disposition of movable property by the law of the country where the Testator is domiciled. This aspect requires attention when dealing with Non-resident Indians. [NRI'S].
When the Testator has immovable property in one country and is domiciled in another, it would be advisable to draft two separate Wills - one relating to movable property and another to immovable property.

Wills of Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains are governed by the Indian Succession Act. Parsees are governed by the Parsee Succession Act. The Indian Succession Act does not apply to Muslims, who are governed by the Mohammed an law. Personal Laws applicable must be kept in mind as they will apply to the testators properties falling in the residue and may affect the making and implementation of the Will.
In Mohammedan law, no formalities are prescribed for making a Will. A Mohammedan can make an oral Will or a written one. A written Will, if made, need not be signed or attested. This is a privilege not enjoyed by other communities. Wills of all other communities have to be executed in accordance with formalities prescribed in the Indian Succession Act.

The Purpose
A will is a legal declaration of a man's intention which he desires to be performed after his death. The fundamental idea of a Will is that the person making the Will should thereby dispose of his property in a manner that seems to him best. A person who makes a Will is said to have died testate. But if he does not make a. will, he dies intestate, in which case his property will be inherited by his legal heirs in accordance with the law of inheritance applicable to him. The law of inheritance determines the legal heirs.(close family members) and their share irrespective of whether such heirs deserve any share in the deceased's property or not.

There are following advantages of making a WILL.
After your death there will be no confusion amongst the family members and relatives as to how to dispose of your property. What they should know is that-you have made the WILL¬ and the same is the last WILL. Since WILL is an extremely personal document, you are able to express your opinions, views and feelings about your relationship with your family members, relatives, friends and other persons. Unlike law of inheritance, you can cater to the special needs and requirements of the members of family i.e. infant children, handicapped son, a widowed daughter, invalid parents etc. Unlike the law of inheritance, you can make some provision for a faithful servant, a nurse, a friend in need of money and so on. You can avoid family dispute by making a clear disposition of your property in a WILL. Unlike law of inheritance, the right of disobedient/fraudulent son or characterless wife can be taken away by means of a WILL. With the increase in unnatural death rate due to motor accidents, riots and natural calamities it is sensible and pragmatic to make a WILL even if you are at young age of, say,25 years.

Conditional or Contingent Wills:
A Will may be expressed to take effect of the happening of some contingency or condition, and if the contingency does not happen or the condition fails, the WILL will not be ¬legally enforceable. Accordingly, where A executes a Will to be operative for a particular year, i.e., if he dies within that year. A lives for more years, after that year. Since A does not express an intention that the WILL will be subsisting even after the particular year, it should be deemed that he died intestate i.e. without making a WILL. A conditional WILL is invalid if the condition imposed is invalid in law.
Joint Wills :
A joint Will is a "testamentary instrument whereby two or more persons agree to make a conjoint Will. Such a Will is valid in India. Where a Will is joint and is intended to take effect after the death of both, it will not be enforceable during the life time of either. Joint Wills are revocable at any time by either of the testators during their joint lives, or after the death of one by the Survivor. .A Will executed by two or more testators as a single document duly executed by each testator disposing of his separate properties, or his joint properties is not a single Will. It operates on the death of each and is in effect for two or more Wills. On the death of each testator, the legatees would become entitled to the properties of the testator who dies. It cannot be said that the testators have become joint owners and that the survivor gets the properties of the deceased.
Mutual Wills :
A Will is mutual when two testators confer upon each other reciprocal benefits by either of them constituting the other his legatee, that is to say, when the executants fulfill the roles of both testator and legatee towards each other. But when the legatees are distinct from the testators, there can be no position for a mutual Will.
Duplicate Wills :
A testator, for the sake of safety, may make a Will in duplicate, the one to be kept by him and the other to be deposited in safe custody with a bank or executor or trustee. However, in order to be valid, each copy must be duly signed and attested. If the testator mutilates or destroys the part in his custody, it is revocation of both.
Concurrent Wills :
Generally, a man should leave only one Will at the time of his death. However, for the sake of convenience a testator may dispose of some properties in one country by one Will and the other properties in another country by another Will. Such Wills may be treated as independent, unless there is any indication to the contrary.
Sham Wills :
If a document is deliberately executed with all due formalities purporting to be a Will, it will still be a nullity if it can be shown that the testator did not intent it to have any testamentary operation, but was to have only some collateral object, e.g., to be shown to another person to induce him to comply with the testator's wish. This is so because the intention to make the Will is essential to the validity of Will and the same is wanting in such a case such a Will is sham one.
Holograph Wills :
A holograph is a Will entirely in the handwriting of the testator.
Privileged & Unprivileged Wills :
As a matter of rule, the Wills have to be made in writing. However, a soldier during his engagement in an actual warfare or an airman so engaged or a mariner being at sea, may pronounce his Will by or of mouth before the witnesses. The Will so pronounced by such persons are called privileged Wills.

Persons Eligible to Make a WILL
According to Section 59 of the Indian Succession Act,

• Every person of sound mind, not being a minor may dispose of his property by Will. There is an exception to this general rule that the testator must not be a minor.
• A married woman may make a WILL of her property which she could alienate by her own act during her life time.
• Deaf or dump or blind person can also make a WILL if they are able to know what they do by it.
• An Ordinarily insane person may make a WILL during an interval in which he is of sound mind
• No person can make a WILL while he is in such a state of mind whether arising from intoxication or from illness or from any other cause that he does not know what he is doing.
• Married woman, aliens and convicts are not debarred from making a WILL.
• Corporate bodies, by their very nature, are incapable of making a WILL, though they may benefit under the WILL of an individual partner.

A careful reading of the provisions of section 59 of the Indian Succession Act, necessitates the following essentials as far as the person making a WILL is concerned.
TESTAMENTARY CAPACITY AND SOUND DISPOSING MIND :
A person is said to have testamentary capacity only if he is in a sound disposing state of mind. The law does not require that a person, in order to be capable of making a will, must be possessed of this mental powers at their best and unimpaired in any degree by old age or disease. A will made by a person of full capacity is not revoked by the fact that he has subsequently become incapable of making a will. In view of the above, it is desirable that in such circumstances the WILL should be witnessed by a medical practitioner who satisfies - himself as to the capacity and understanding of the testator and makes a record of this -examination and findings.
KNOWLEDGE Of CONTENTS
It is elementary 11lle that the testator must have the knowledge of the contents of the WILL which he executes. If the testator does not know the contents of a WILL, it cannot be said to be valid. Such knowledge and approval of the testator may be presumed on proof of the signature of the executants to the WILL.
FREE FROM UNDUE INFLUENCE / FRAUD / COERCION
According to Section 61 of the Indian Succession Act a Will or any part of a WI. ,L, 9 the making of which has been caused by fraud or coercion or by such importunity as takes away the free agency of the testator is void.
VOLUNTARY ACT.
In order to be valid, a Will must satisfy two essential conditions namely (1 ) the testator must be fully aware of the contents of the WILL and approve them and (IU It must be his own voluntary act A testator cannot, therefore, delegate his testamentary power to another person. Where it is shown that the WILL was read over to the testator and contents thereof were properly brought to his notice before execution, it must be presumed that the WILL was executed by the testator after approving its contents. A WILL cannot be said to be valid when the deceased is not shown to have knowledge of its contents and he has approved the same. Without adequate proof, a WILL cannot be held valid merely because its contents are reasonable.

WILL MUST BE IN WRITING: - All religions except Muslims, the will must be made in writing. The only exception provided under the law are the members of the armed forces employed in an expedition or engaged in actual warfare and mariner at seas who are permitted to make an oral will. Such will is known as" Privileged WILL".
MUSLIMS CAN MAKE ORAL WILL :- Muslims are permitted by their personal law to make a oral will.
NO PARTICULAR FORM OF WILL :- There is no particular form of WILL prescribed by law. The language employed should be as simple as possible and should be free from technical words.
WILL NEED NOT BE ON STAMP PAPER :- IT is wrong to say that a WILL has to be executed on a Stamp paper as there is no such stipulation under the Indian Stamp Act. A WILL can therefore be made on any plain sheet of paper which must of course, be of durable quality.
TYPING IS NOT ESSENTIAL BUT DESIRABLE :- A will need not be typed. It can be made in testator's own hand using a ball pen or fountain pen. A written WILL is known as holograph and is valid in the eyes of law. However, in a handwritten WILL some confusion is bound to be caused by illegible handwriting of the testator. It is therefore advised that WILL should be neatly typed with margins on both sides of the pages.
OUTLINES FOR DRAFTING A WILL:- While drafting a WILL, the following broad outlines should be kept in mind.

• Name and address of the testator;
• The fact that the testator is making the WILL voluntarily and is in sound disposing state of mind;.
• Necessity or urgency, if any, for execution of the WILL;
• Enumeration of testator's relatives who would be entitled to his properties on intestacy and to whom the bequests are proposed to be made;
• Details of procedure of making bequests;
• Use of clear and unambiguous language;
• Avoidance of conflict with rule of law e.g. rule against perpetuity ;
• Appointment of executor;
• Schedule of properties bequeathed;
• Attestation of WILL by at least two witnesses
• Provisions relating to bequest and trusts created by the WILL should be complete.
• Interest conveyed by WILL should be clearly defined. A WILL or bequest not expressive or any definite intention is void for uncertainty.

• Prepare a list of all your assets and property which remain after taking into account all debts, liabilities and expenses to get a clear picture of how you wish to distribute the estate.
• Make a realistic appraisal ofY8Uf net estate available for disposition to avoid abatement of legacies.
• The WILL should be drafted in the language best understood by the testator so as to give the impression that the contents were fully understood by the testator and the WILL is the expression of testators wishes and intentions.
• In case the testator is illiterate the WILL should be executed in a language, which the testator can comprehend.
• In case of illiterate testator, the attesting witness or third person should read out the WILL to the testator before its execution. If the WILL is read out by a third person it should be done in the presence of the attesting witnesses.
• Where the WILL is executed by a person who does not orally comprehend the language in which it has been drafted an exact translation of the WILL should be read out to the testator before its execution. It is desirable that the translation is read out in the presence of attesting witnesses who understand both the languages.
• The WILL should be drafted in a simple language and should be clear and unambiguous. It is not necessary to use any legal or technical words and phrases. What is important is the intention of the testator should be known. (8) Unusual characters of the WILL should be explained and clarified in the main body of the WILL itself. Thus where a testator bequeaths all his property to his daughter disinheriting and excluding his wife and other two sons or bequeaths his entire property to charity disinheriting his entire family it is desirable that in such circumstances reasons are clearly stated in the WILL itself (9) Execute only a single copy of the WILL so as to avoid confusion and disputes at future dates.

LEGAL REQUIREMENTS FOR MAKING A WILL:
Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act provides as under Every testator, not being a soldier employed in a expedition nor engaged in actual warfare, or an airman so employed or engaged or a mariner at sea, shall execute his WILL according to the following rules:

• The testator shall sign or shall affix his mark to the WILL, or it shall be signed by some other person in his presence and by his direction.
• The signature or mark of the testator, or the signature of the person signing for him shall be so placed that it shall appear that it was intended thereby to give effect to the writing as a will.
• The Will shall be attested by two or more witnesses, each of whom has seen the testator sign or affix his mark, to the WILL or has seen some other person sign the WILL, in the presence of and by the direction of the testator, or has received from the testator a personal acknowledgement of his signature or mark, or of the signature of such other person; and each of the witnesses shall sign the will in the presence of the testator, but it shall not be necessary that more than one witnesses be present at the same time, and no particular for of attestation shall be necessary "

SELECTION OF WITNESS:
Casual selection of the witnesses to be WILL prove fatal in the event of the proof of the execution of the .WILL at future date. It should be clearly understood that the attesting witness may on some future occasion be required to appear as a witness in Court in order to prove the execution of WILL.