Left out of will, Sikh widow wins half of 1m pounds estate in UK
Darpan News Desk IANS, 17 Feb, 2023 11:56 AM
London, Feb 17 (IANS) An 83-year-old Sikh woman, whose late husband of 66 years left her out of his will, has won a high court battle in London for a share of an estate worth more than 1 million pounds.
Karnail Singh, who died in 2021, left nothing for wife Harbans Kaur and four daughters, as he handed all of his estate to his two sons, The Guardian reported.
Justice Peel heard that Singh, who wrote in will in 2005, "wished to leave his estate solely down the male line".
Kaur, who married Singh in 1955, estimated the estate to be worth 1.9 million pounds gross but one of her sons put the value at 1.2 million pounds, the court was told.
Ruling that Kaur should get 50 per cent of the net value of the estate, the judge said that it was clear "reasonable provision" had not been made for the widow, whose income consisted of state benefits of about 12,000 pounds.
Hearing the case in London's family division of the high court, Peel said proof showed that Kaur had played a "full role" in the marriage and worked in the family's clothing business.
"After a marriage of 66 years, to which she made a full and equal contribution, and during which all the assets accrued, she is left with next to nothing," Peel said, while giving out the judgement.
"This decision is evidence that people cannot simply be cut out of wills, especially spouses which have contributed for a significant number of years," Heledd Wyn, a partner at law firm Shakespeare Martineau, said.
The U.S. will likely see an uptick in cases caused by the omicron descendant BA.2 starting in the next few weeks, according to Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute.
The White House says it is "closely monitoring" the situation and is keeping tabs on negotiations, as are administration officials, including the U.S. ambassador, and cabinet secretaries.
The China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 was flying from Kunming to Guangzhou when it plunged to the ground in Guangxi province and caught fire, the BBC reported.
They include Sen. Ed Markey, who couldn't contain his excitement this week when the Senate unanimously passed a plan that would make daylight time permanent across the country.
White House officials say the shortfall will soon make it harder to access the vaccines, booster shots, tests and drug therapies that have become vital tools in the fight against COVID-19.
So far the Russian troops have taken over the closed nuclear power plant at Chernobyl and the active nuclear power plant Zaporizhzhia, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River, in the city of Enerhodar.
