Duplicate Will
A signed, attested second copy of a Will that the testator keeps for themselves while the executor or trustee holds the original — destroying either copy revokes both.
In plain language
Most people think of a Will as one single document. The workbook describes a variant that is not: a Duplicate Will.
Here the testator makes two copies, each one signed and attested exactly as a Will has to be. One copy usually sits with the executor or trustee. The other stays with the testator.
The reason is simple safekeeping. If the testator's own copy is lost, damaged, or hard to find at the crucial moment, the executor's copy is still there.
How it works
What makes a Duplicate Will legally distinct from simply photocopying a Will:
- Both copies must be duly signed and attested, exactly as the original Will formalities require — a Duplicate Will is not an informal backup copy, it is a second original.
- Custody is split. The testator holds one copy; the executor or trustee generally holds the other.
- Destroying one copy revokes both. If the testator mutilates or destroys the copy in their own custody, the workbook treats both copies as revoked — not just the one that was physically destroyed. The act of destruction is read as evidence of an intention to revoke the Will altogether, and that intention reaches the copy the executor is holding too.
A worked example
Mrs Rao makes a Will leaving her estate, worth Rs 2,00,00,000, to her two children. She signs two duly attested copies: one she keeps in her own almirah, the other she hands to her named executor, her brother.
Five years later, in a moment of anger during a family dispute, she tears up her own copy at home. Her brother's copy, sitting untouched in his custody, is physically intact and perfectly legible.
Under the Duplicate Will rule, both copies are treated as revoked, even though only one was physically destroyed. Her brother cannot simply produce his intact copy and have it admitted to probate; the act of destruction on the other copy is taken as her intention to revoke the whole Will, both copies included. Without a fresh Will, her estate now passes under the ordinary rules of intestate succession.
Why NISM asks about it
Chapter 15 (Tools for Estate Planning), section 15.2.2, "Types of Will," lists Duplicate Will alongside Conditional, Joint and Mutual, Holograph, Concurrent, Sham, and Privileged Wills. Expect a question that asks which type of Will is being described from a short fact pattern, or a question testing what happens when only one of two copies is destroyed.
Common exam traps
- Destroying either copy revokes both — a common wrong answer assumes the executor's intact copy survives and can still be probated.
- A Duplicate Will is not the same as a Concurrent Will. A Concurrent Will covers property in two different countries and is genuinely two separate wills; a Duplicate Will is two signed copies of the same Will.
- Both copies need full formalities — an unsigned photocopy kept "just in case" is not a Duplicate Will in this technical sense.
- The purpose is safekeeping against loss, not creating two independent instruments that could be revoked separately.
Check yourself
1.Harish Kulkarni signed his Will and had it attested. He also signed and had attested a duplicate, which he gave to his executor. He later tears up the copy in his own custody. What is the effect as per the workbook?
- a)Only Harish's copy is revoked; the duplicate held by the executor remains his valid Will
- b)The duplicate becomes a concurrent Will and must be admitted to probate on its own
- c)Nothing is revoked, because mere loss or destruction of a Will never amounts to revocation
- d)Both the Will and the duplicate are treated as revoked
Show the answer
Answer: (d) Both the Will and the duplicate are treated as revoked
The workbook on the duplicate Will: “A duplicate will is a copy of the Will kept with the testator. But the will has to be duly signed and attested. The duplicate will generally lies with the executor or trustee. When the testator mutilates or destroys the part in his custody then both wills are considered to be revoked.”
Harish destroyed the part in his custody, so both documents are revoked.
Option A is wrong. The workbook says “both wills are considered to be revoked”. The executor's copy does not survive.
Option B is wrong. A concurrent Will is a different type: “the testator may write two wills – one relating to his property in one country and other relating to his property in other country. Both these wills are treated as independent.” A duplicate is a copy of the same Will, not a second independent Will.
Option C is wrong. It treats destruction as if it were loss. “The mere loss of the Will does not lead to revocation but where the Will is destroyed by the testator or with his privity or approbation, the Will is deemed to have been revoked” (p351). Tearing is one of the listed modes: “By burning, tearing or otherwise destroying the Will by the testator ... with the intention of revoking the Will.”
Related type on the same page: a joint Will “is recognized as two wills and is intended to take effect after the death of both the testators”. It is admitted to probate as individual wills.
Where this is taught
Free preparation for NISM Series X-BRelated terms
- Concurrent WillTwo separate wills written by the same testator — typically one for property in each of two countries — treated as independent, though both must go to probate together if they are related.
- Conditional or contingent WillA will that takes effect only if a stated condition or contingency occurs — if the condition fails, the will has no legal force, and probate cannot be granted on it.
- WillA written legal declaration of how a person wants their assets distributed after death. Registration is not compulsory but preferable; without a Will, assets pass under personal laws.
- Mutual WillTwo testators leaving each other reciprocal benefits in their wills, valid only where the same two people are, for each other, both testator and legatee.
- Privileged WillA Will that a soldier engaged in actual warfare, an airman similarly engaged, or a mariner at sea may pronounce orally before 2 witnesses present at the same time, dispensing with the usual writing requirement.
- Joint WillA Will made by two or more persons, valid in Indian law, recognised as two Wills and intended to take effect after the death of both testators, with each testator disposing of property as an individual Will.
- Sham WillA document executed with all the formalities of a Will but without any intention of testamentary operation — it is a nullity, because intention is the primary characteristic of a valid Will.