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.
On Thursday evening, a suicide bombing rocked a gate of the airport where a crashing crowd was waiting for evacuation flights, and later another explosion hit the nearby Baron Camp, a former coalition base.
In his first comments on Kashmir, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid has said that Pakistan and India should sit together to resolve all their outstanding issues because both are neighbours and their interests are linked to each other.
The Haqqani network also established close ties with Pakistan's powerful yet notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which provided it weapons, training, and financial support.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who hosted the summit, and France's Emmanuel Macron were among those calling for an extension in order to more fully evacuate all foreign nationals and vulnerable Afghans who helped the Americans and the NATO allies before the country's recent fall to the Taliban.
The Pentagon promptly announced it will press ahead with plans to require members of the military to get vaccinated amid the battle against the extra-contagious delta variant. Louisiana State University likewise said it will demand its students get the shot.
The situation at the Kabul airport has remained tense ever since the Taliban fighters swept into Kabul without encountering any resistance, and gained full control over the Afghan capital within a few hours on August 15.
