Kolkata: RS Lodha has filed a caveat in all courts within the Kolkata jurisdiction. The purpose is to ensure that no steps can be taken by the court (ex parte) without a notice to him (a kind of warning to a probate court). This is said to be a safeguard measure to prevent anyone from quietly filing a succession certificate in any court, triggering an effective challenge to the will. Sources feel this move clearly indicates that Lodha is gearing to go for a probate at the earliest.

Senior counsel Saktinath Mukherjee, it is learnt, may appear for the Lodha group to get a probate from the court of district delegate. A probate is a legal acceptance that a document, especially a will, is valid, and the grant of a probate proves that a will is genuine, given to the executors so that they can act on the terms of the will.

The law provides that to get a probate, notice to all legal heirs has to be served, which is mandatory, and should be served application under Act XXXIX by Lodha, the beneficiary. It is pointed out that even if Lodha is appointed an executor of the will, this legal requirement will have to be followed for obtaining a probate.

Legal experts, when quizzed on the likely outcome of the developments in the wake of the unexpected last will of the widow of MP Birla, and the caveat filed on Wednesday by Lodha, say that the matter, if taken to court, may drag on for years.

They cite cases where wills have been contested, with the matter still pending before the supreme court even after a lapse of 40 years. The will, they say, has to be probated, at which stage it may be contested by those opposed to it; in this case, by other members of the Birla clan, who feel that the will is an "unnatural" one.