Mandatory Probate Rule Scrapped: India’s Succession Law Reform

India has recently undertaken a significant reform in its succession framework by removing the requirement of compulsory probate rule for certain categories of wills. Previously, in metropolitan jurisdictions such as Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai, beneficiaries could not legally act upon a will unless it was first validated by a court through probate, a procedure that was frequently time-consuming, expensive, and procedurally intensive. Pursuant to the Repealing and Amending Act, 2025, which amends the Indian Succession Act, 1925, this mandatory requirement has been dispensed with. As a result, a validly executed will may now be implemented without prior court confirmation, while probate continues to remain available as a voluntary protective mechanism in cases involving heightened risk, uncertainty, or potential disputes. In effect, the reform simplifies and accelerates inheritance for families and businesses, places greater emphasis on accurate will-drafting and documentation, and enables courts to concentrate judicial resources on matters that genuinely require adjudication.

India’s Succession Law Reform under the Repealing and Amending Act, 2025

India’s succession law framework has undergone a structural reset with the formal notification of the Repealing and Amending Act, 2025 in December 2025. The most consequential outcome of this legislation is the complete omission of Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, which for nearly a century imposed a mandatory probate requirement on wills executed by certain communities in the former Presidency Towns of Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai.

This reform dismantles a long-criticised geographical and religious anomaly, replacing a court-mandated gatekeeping regime with a choice-based, risk-calibrated succession framework. Probate has not been abolished. Instead, it has transitioned from a compulsory procedural hurdle into a strategic legal instrument, to be deployed selectively where estate complexity, dispute risk, or asset value demands judicial certainty.

For founders, family offices, high-net-worth individuals (HNIs), banks, housing societies, trustees, and corporate stakeholders, this change materially alters:

• estate administration timelines and costs
• institutional compliance models
• litigation risk allocation
• succession planning strategies
• property and securities transmission workflows

In parallel, financial-market reforms such as SEBI’s Transmission to Legal Heirs (TLH) reporting code (effective January 2026) indicate a coordinated regulatory shift toward trust-based, friction-reduced asset transmission.

This merged report-blog provides a complete legal, operational, and strategic analysis of the reform, supported by legislative history, case law evolution, quantitative impact assessment, stakeholder-specific implications, global comparisons, and a practitioner-ready playbook.

1. What Is Probate and Why It Historically Mattered in India

Probate is a judicial certification of a will that confirms:

1. the authenticity of the will, and
2. the authority of the executor to administer the estate

Once granted, probate operates as a judgment in rem, conclusively binding on the world at large.

The pre-2025 mandatory probate regime

Before the 2025 reform:

• Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 created a statutory bar: no right under a will could be enforced in court without probate or letters of administration.
• This mandate applied only in the former Presidency Towns:
  • Mumbai (Bombay)
  • Kolkata (Calcutta)
  • Chennai (Madras)
• It applied selectively to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and Parsis, while Muslims and residents of cities such as Delhi or Bengaluru were exempt.

Practical consequences of mandatory probate

• High Court filings even for uncontested estates
• Ad-valorem court fees
• Procedural hearings and public notices
• Typical timelines of 2 to 5 years in complex cases
• Costs that often exceeded the value of modest estates

What did the probate process actually involve?

For families navigating succession before 2025, probate was not a single filing. It was a multi-stage court proceeding. Understanding what was involved explains why its removal is materially significant.

The process typically required the executor or applicant to:

1. File a probate petition in the relevant District Court or High Court within whose jurisdiction the will was executed or the immovable property was situated.
2. Submit the original will along with the death certificate of the testator, an inventory of estate assets, and supporting affidavits.
3. Serve public notice, after which any interested party including a disgruntled heir could file a caveat or objection.
4. Attend procedural hearings where the court verified attesting witnesses, examined the circumstances of execution, and satisfied itself as to testamentary capacity.
5. Obtain the probate order, after which the executor received a court-certified copy entitling them to act on the estate.

At each stage, legal representation was effectively mandatory. Court fees were charged on an ad valorem basis on the estate value. Even in fully uncontested matters, the timeline from filing to grant rarely fell below 12 months in the High Courts of Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai, and stretched far longer where caveats were filed. This framework, designed for an era of limited documentation and contested succession, became a procedural tax on orderly inheritance.

2. The 2025 Succession Law Reform: What Changed

Core legislative action: Omission of Section 213, Indian Succession Act, 1925

The Second Schedule of the Repealing and Amending Act, 2025 explicitly directs that “Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 shall be omitted.”

This removes the condition precedent that previously treated wills in Presidency Towns as legally “suspect” unless judicially validated.

Consequential statutory amendments

To prevent interpretational gaps, Parliament simultaneously amended:

• Section 3(1) — removing references to Section 213 from state-exemption powers
• Section 370(1) and (2) — expanding access to Succession Certificates for debts and securities
• Retained Section 212 (intestacy) and Section 273 (conclusive nature of probate)

What remains unchanged

• Probate continues to exist
• Courts retain probate jurisdiction
• Probate still delivers the highest level of legal certainty

The reform does not weaken probate; it repositions it.

Savings clause and transitional operation of the 2025 Act

A question frequently raised by families with ongoing matters is whether the reform affects cases already in the system. The answer is no, and this is by deliberate legislative design.

The Repealing and Amending Act, 2025 includes a standard savings clause that preserves all rights, obligations, and liabilities already acquired, accrued, or incurred before the notification date. In practical terms:

• Probate petitions already filed and pending in the High Courts of Mumbai, Kolkata, or Chennai will continue to be heard and decided under the old framework.
• Probates already granted remain valid and conclusive. They do not need to be re-examined or re-issued.
• Executors acting on a pre-reform probate order retain full authority under that grant.
• New petitions filed after the Act’s notification are no longer compelled by Section 213. Courts will not reject a voluntary probate application, but they will not require one either.

The prospective operation of the reform also means that institutions, including banks and housing societies, will need time to update their internal processes. Readers with estates currently in the system should verify whether their specific matter pre-dates or post-dates the notification date of the Act, which received Presidential assent on 20/12/2025 and was published in the Official Gazette shortly thereafter.

3. Indian Succession Act, 1925 – Repealing and Amending Act, 2025

The mandatory probate rule originated in late-19th-century colonial administration. Its survival into modern India created formal inequality across geography and religion.

Before vs after (structural comparison)

Dimension	Pre-2025	Post-2025
Geography	Mandatory in 3 cities	Optional nationwide
Religion	Selective communities	Uniform application
Institutional practice	Probate-driven	Risk-based discretion
Cost and time	High, court-centric	Reduced, flexible
Citizen autonomy	Limited	Restored

By removing mandatory probate, the reform restores testamentary autonomy, reduces scope for procedural abuse, and aligns succession law with contemporary ease-of-living objectives.

4. Legal Mechanics: How the Burden of Proof Has Shifted

From court-first to challenge-based scrutiny

Under the old regime, judicial scrutiny occurred upfront. Post-reform, scrutiny is deferred and triggered only if a dispute arises.

Interpretation risks

• Different institutions may evaluate the same will differently
• Mutation is not proof of title
• Revenue authorities conduct only summary inquiries
• Litigation risk now depends heavily on drafting quality and documentation

This makes preventive legal design more critical than ever.

Fragmentation of dispute resolution: the multi-forum risk

One systemic consequence of the reform that practitioners must plan for is the potential fragmentation of dispute resolution. Under the mandatory probate regime, there was a single early adjudicatory forum where questions of testamentary capacity, due execution, attestation, and undue influence were resolved with finality, before assets changed hands.

Post-reform, that single forum has been replaced by a deferred, distributed system. Challenges can now surface across multiple simultaneous proceedings and institutions:

• Revenue and municipal authorities handling property mutation
• Bank compliance teams deciding whether to release fixed deposits or accounts
• Housing society boards evaluating membership transmission
• Civil courts entertaining later challenges to the will’s validity
• Demat and securities depositories applying their own transmission frameworks

A challenge that would previously have been heard once, in a single probate proceeding, can now be raised repeatedly in each of these forums. This creates the possibility of inconsistent determinations across institutions, procedural overlap, and prolonged uncertainty for beneficiaries and third parties who have already received assets in good faith.

The practical implication for executors and advisors is to treat documentation as a pre-emptive litigation strategy. A well-attested, registered will with aligned nominations, a video attestation of the signing ceremony, and a clear indemnity bond architecture across institutions reduces, but does not eliminate, this fragmentation risk. For estates where heir relations are anything less than fully amicable, voluntary probate remains the most effective way to produce a single, conclusive determination.

5. Probate vs Letters of Administration vs Succession Certificate: Practical Distinctions

Post-2025, three succession instruments remain available in India, each serving a distinct function. Choosing the right instrument for the right asset type is a core part of estate execution strategy.

Probate vs Letters of Administration vs Succession Certificate

Factor	Probate	Letters of Administration	Succession Certificate
When applicable	Where a valid will exists and executor is named	Where there is no will (intestacy) or no executor is named in the will	For collecting debts, securities, and financial assets
Judicial depth	High — full testamentary scrutiny	High — court determines entitlement under intestacy law	Summary — faster proceedings
Typical duration	6 to 18 months or more	6 to 18 months or more	2 to 4 months
Use case	High-value, complex, or disputed testate estates	Intestate estates, or testate estates without a named executor	Bank accounts, debentures, government securities, mutual fund units
Legal conclusiveness	Judgment in rem, binding on all	Judgment in rem, binding on all	Limited — does not validate the will itself
Post-2025 status	Voluntary (no longer mandatory in the three Presidency Towns)	Unchanged — still required for intestate succession	Expanded access post Section 370 amendment

Letters of administration are granted by courts where the deceased left no will at all (intestacy), or where a will exists but does not name an executor, or where the named executor is unwilling or unable to act. Section 212 of the Indian Succession Act, which governs letters of administration in intestate succession, was not amended by the 2025 Act. That provision continues in full force.

The practical consequence is that the reform’s benefit, the removal of the mandatory court-first step, applies only to testate succession (where a will exists). Families dealing with an intestate estate in Mumbai, Kolkata, or Chennai still require letters of administration before they can legally enforce succession rights in court.

Post-2025, Succession Certificates are now accessible in situations previously blocked by the mandatory probate condition, following the amendment to Section 370.

6. Quantitative Impact: Time, Cost, and Court Burden

Metric	Earlier Regime	Post-Reform
Median estate settlement	12 to 24 months	2 to 8 months
Court hearings	Multiple	Only if disputed
High Court load	Heavy	Expected to decline

7. Stakeholder-Wise Operational Impact

Banks and Financial Institutions

• Faster claim settlements
• Increased payout pace
• Nominees remain trustees, not owners
• Likely adoption of valuation-based thresholds
• Indemnities and affidavits gain prominence

Housing Societies and Real Estate

• Bye-laws must be updated
• Reliance shifts to:
  • registered wills
  • indemnity bonds
  • title search reports
• Buyers may still demand probate for “clean title” and marketable title purposes

Corporate Trustees and Family Offices

• Trusts remain superior for probate-free succession
• Voluntary probate recommended for:
  • blended families
  • estranged heirs
  • large real-estate portfolios

Startups and Founders

• Share transmission under Companies Act, 2013 becomes faster
• SHAs must be reviewed to remove probate-contingent clauses
• Voting control during succession improves materially

NRIs and Cross-Border Estates

The reform carries disproportionate benefit for non-resident Indians (NRIs) with immovable property or financial assets in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai.

Under the pre-2025 framework, an NRI who inherited property in any of the three Presidency Towns faced a layered burden: they needed to either appear in person for probate proceedings or appoint a representative through a registered power of attorney, engage counsel familiar with the relevant High Court’s probate registry, and remain available for procedural hearings that could stretch across multiple years. The geographic tie between a will’s validity and the city of property location created what practitioners rightly described as geographic discrimination: an identical will executed by an NRI with property in Mumbai attracted mandatory probate, while the same individual’s Bengaluru or Delhi property did not.

Post-reform, NRIs can act on a valid will without mandatory probate, approaching banks, depositories, and registrar offices with the original will, death certificate, and supporting documentation. The practical steps for cross-border estates now mirror what was already available to heirs in the rest of India.

Key considerations for NRI estate execution in 2026:

• FEMA compliance remains separately applicable. Repatriation of inherited funds abroad requires the bank to conduct its own verification under the Foreign Exchange Management Act and RBI master directions on inheritance.
• A succession certificate from the District Court, now accessible without mandatory probate, is typically sufficient for banks to release fixed deposits and securities to an NRI heir.
• For immovable property, mutation at the relevant municipal body (MCGM in Mumbai, KMC in Kolkata, CCMC in Chennai) remains a separate step and requires an application with the original will, affidavit of heirship, and in many cases an indemnity bond.
• Where an NRI heir anticipates resistance from other family members, voluntary probate is strongly advisable because the judgment in rem binds parties across jurisdictions and provides the strongest evidentiary foundation in any subsequent cross-border dispute.

8. Risk Scenarios and Decision Tree (2026)

High-risk scenarios (probate strongly advised)

• Handwritten or copy wills
• Exclusion of spouse or child
• Multiple wills or suspicious circumstances
• Large debts or ongoing litigation

Medium-risk scenarios

• High-value real estate
• Third-party executors
• Unequal distributions

Low-risk scenarios

• Registered wills
• Aligned nominations
• Amicable Class-I heirs
• Assets under ₹50 lakh

9. International Comparison: Where India Now Stands

The move toward optional probate aligns India with international trends where judicial intervention is reserved for higher-risk or high-value cases.

Jurisdiction	Probate Trigger Mechanism	Strategic Parallel to India
United Kingdom	Determined by individual banks and institutions; typically £5,000 to £50,000 thresholds.	India’s banks are expected to adopt similar risk-based internal limits.
Singapore	Mandatory for most asset transfers; “Resealing” allowed for Commonwealth grants.	Singapore still maintains a robust mandatory regime, showing India is now more liberal than its neighbour.
United States (UPC)	Dual “Informal” and “Formal” tracks based on size and complexity ($25,000 threshold common).	India’s optional probate is comparable to the UPC’s Informal Probate where court involvement is minimal for uncontested estates.

The US Massachusetts Uniform Probate Code (MAUPC) provides a glimpse into India’s future. In the US, “Voluntary Administration” is a simplified process for small estates with no real estate.

India has gone a step further by removing the mandatory requirement even for real estate in the Presidency Towns, effectively trusting the registered deed unless challenged. India has effectively leapfrogged into a trust-first, court-last succession model.

10. Market Synergy: SEBI’s TLH Code (Effective Jan 2026)

The 2025 probate reform does not exist in a vacuum. It is supported by financial market reforms aimed at ease of doing investment.

• TLH = Transmission to Legal Heirs. Effective 01/01/2026, SEBI has introduced the “TLH” reporting code for market intermediaries (RTAs, DPs).
• Enables tax-neutral securities transfer. Previously, when a nominee transferred securities to a legal heir, it was sometimes wrongly taxed as a “transfer” attracting Capital Gains. The TLH code signals to the CBDT that the transaction is an exempt inheritance under Section 47(iii) of the Income Tax Act.
• Prevents misclassification as capital gains.
• Complements probate reform by:
  • clarifying who inherits
  • simplifying how assets transfer

By first ensuring who should inherit through nomination reforms and now ensuring a tax-neutral, probate-free transfer path, the regulators are creating a seamless loop for financial assets.

11. Practitioner Playbook

Before death (testator)

• Drafting quality: Ensure the will explicitly references Section 63 formalities. Since there is no automatic court audit, the internal robustness of the document is the only defence.
• Video attestation: Record a video of the signing ceremony to establish testamentary capacity and sound mind.
• Registration: Although not mandatory, register the will at the Sub-Registrar’s office. This creates a public record that can satisfy housing societies and banks even without probate.
• Nomination audit: Make sure all financial nominees match the legatees in the will to minimise the trustee-versus-owner friction that nominees often create.

After death (executor or heirs)

• Succession Certificate route: For debts and securities, assess whether a Succession Certificate (now easier post-Section 370 amendment) is faster than full probate.
• SEBI TLH reporting: Make sure your DP uses the TLH code for share transfers to avoid capital gains tax demands from the CBDT.
• Property mutation: Apply for mutation at the Municipal Corporation (MCGM in Mumbai, KMC in Kolkata) with an affidavit of no other legal heirs and a copy of the will.
• Indemnity strategy: Prepare standard indemnity bonds for banks and housing societies to offset their perceived risk of paying out without a court order.

12. Policy and Market Implications

• Judicial capacity unlocked for substantive adjudication: By eliminating compulsory probate for uncontested wills, the High Courts of Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai are relieved of a significant volume of routine probate filings. Judicial time and institutional capacity can be reallocated toward complex civil, commercial, insolvency, and constitutional matters that genuinely require adjudication.
• Accelerated liquidity and operational continuity for families and enterprises: Heirs and executors can access immovable property, bank deposits, securities, and business interests without prolonged court timelines. This materially improves cash flow availability for household needs, debt servicing, succession-driven business continuity, and founder-led enterprise stability.
• Reduction in unclaimed and dormant financial assets: Easier execution of valid wills reduces friction in succession, directly addressing the chronic accumulation of unclaimed balances held by banks, insurance companies, mutual funds, and depositories. Faster transmission of assets limits dormancy, improves capital circulation in the financial system, and reduces administrative and compliance burdens on financial institutions.
• Greater emphasis on precision-driven estate planning: With courts no longer functioning as an automatic validation layer, outcomes increasingly depend on the technical quality of will drafting, asset identification, nomination alignment, and record integrity. This is likely to drive higher demand for structured estate planning, particularly among founders, business families, and HNIs.
• Professional evolution from probate processing to succession strategy: Legal and advisory services are shifting away from volume-driven probate filings toward integrated succession advisory. The focus moves to risk mitigation, dispute avoidance, instrument selection (wills, trusts, voluntary probate), intergenerational governance, and long-term ownership continuity for family enterprises and institutional wealth.

FAQs on Probate Rule Removal

Q: Is probate still required in India after the 2025 reform?
A: No, probate is no longer mandatory for wills executed by Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, and Parsis in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai following the omission of Section 213 by the Repealing and Amending Act, 2025. Probate remains available voluntarily and is the recommended route for complex, high-value, or disputed estates.

Q: What is the difference between probate and letters of administration?
A: Probate applies where a valid will exists and an executor is named. Letters of administration are granted where the deceased died intestate (without a will) or where no executor is named or available. Section 212 of the Indian Succession Act, which governs letters of administration in intestate succession, was not removed by the 2025 reform and continues in force.

Q: Does the 2025 reform affect ongoing probate proceedings?
A: No. The Act contains a savings clause under which all pending proceedings, rights, and liabilities accrued before the notification date are preserved. Probate petitions already filed will continue under the old framework. Probates already granted remain valid.

Q: Can a bank refuse to release funds without probate after this reform?
A: Technically, a bank cannot insist on probate as a mandatory condition post-reform. However, banks may still require it for high-value estates where they assess fraud or dispute risk as elevated. Institutions are expected to adopt valuation-based thresholds similar to what UK banks currently use. Indemnity bonds and affidavits of heirship are becoming the practical substitute in most routine settlement cases.

Q: Is a registered will more valid than an unregistered will?
A: Registration does not determine legal validity. An unregistered will that is properly executed under Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act is legally valid. However, registration provides a public record, reduces the risk of tampering, and is far more readily accepted by housing societies, banks, and registrar offices without additional scrutiny. Post-reform, where there is no automatic court certification, a registered will is a stronger operational document even though its legal standing is identical to an unregistered one.

Q: What is a Succession Certificate and when should it be used?
A: A Succession Certificate is a summary court order that authorises a specific person to collect debts and securities belonging to the deceased. It does not validate the will or establish title to immovable property. Following the amendment to Section 370, Succession Certificates are now accessible in situations previously blocked by the mandatory probate condition. The process typically takes 2 to 4 months and is the fastest route for releasing financial assets such as fixed deposits, mutual fund units, and listed securities.

Q: What has changed for NRI heirs with property in Mumbai, Kolkata, or Chennai?
A: NRI heirs no longer need to file a mandatory probate petition for property in these cities. They can approach banks, depositories, and registrar offices directly with the original will, death certificate, and supporting affidavits. FEMA compliance requirements for repatriation remain separately applicable and are governed by RBI master directions on inheritance. For cross-border disputes, voluntary probate remains advisable because the resulting judgment in rem is enforceable across jurisdictions.

Q: Does the reform apply to Muslim testators?
A: Section 213 never applied to Muslims or Indian Christians. The 2025 reform therefore changes nothing for Muslim testators. Their succession continues to be governed separately, and they were already exempt from the mandatory probate requirement.

Q: What happens if a will is challenged after assets have already been distributed?
A: This is the central risk created by the reform’s shift from court-first to challenge-based scrutiny. If assets are distributed without probate and a challenger later succeeds in establishing a defect in the will (lack of testamentary capacity, undue influence, forgery), the beneficiaries who received assets may face recovery claims. The indemnity bonds given to banks and housing societies provide some protection to those institutions but do not protect individual beneficiaries from inter-party claims. For estates where challenge risk is non-trivial, voluntary probate remains the only instrument that creates a conclusive judicial determination before asset distribution.

Q: Can housing societies refuse to transfer membership without probate?
A: Many housing society bye-laws in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai were drafted on the assumption that probate would be available as a standard transmission document. Post-reform, societies will need to update their bye-laws and transmission procedures. In the interim, most societies are expected to accept a registered will, an affidavit of heirship, and an indemnity bond as a substitute. Buyers of properties in these societies may still request voluntary probate as a condition for clean, marketable title.

Q: Is testamentary capacity harder to establish without a probate proceeding?
A: Yes. In a probate proceeding, the court actively examines the circumstances of will execution and the testator’s mental state at the time of signing. Without probate, that examination does not happen upfront. If testamentary capacity is later challenged in civil litigation, the executor and beneficiaries bear the burden of producing evidence: medical records, attesting witness testimony, video recordings, and any other contemporaneous documentation. This is why video attestation at the time of signing has become a critical preventive step under the new framework.

Q: What is the SEBI TLH code and why does it matter for inheritance?
A: The TLH (Transmission to Legal Heirs) reporting code was introduced by SEBI effective 01/01/2026 for RTAs and DPs. When a nominee transfers securities to the legal heir, this code signals to the CBDT that the transaction is an exempt inheritance under Section 47(iii) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, and should not be treated as a taxable transfer attracting Capital Gains Tax. Without the TLH code, some DPs were classifying these transmissions as taxable transfers. The code works in tandem with the probate reform to create a fully tax-neutral, probate-free transmission pathway for listed securities.

Q: Is voluntary probate still a smart move in 2026?
A: For straightforward estates with registered wills, aligned nominations, and no dispute risk, voluntary probate may be unnecessary and will add time and cost. For estates involving high-value immovable property, blended family structures, estranged heirs, multiple wills, or any situation where the testator’s capacity might be questioned, voluntary probate remains the single most robust protective instrument available. The reform does not make probate obsolete. It makes probate a choice rather than a compulsion, and for the right cases, it is still the right choice.

13. Strategic Conclusion

The scrapping of mandatory probate is not deregulation, it is re-regulation by design.

The law has reduced compulsion, but increased responsibility. Those who plan well gain speed and efficiency. Those who plan poorly face amplified litigation risk.

The scrapping of the mandatory probate rule is a victory for legal uniformity and administrative efficiency in India. However, as the “compulsion” of the law recedes, the “responsibility” of the individual increases. The 2025 reforms have handed the keys to estate administration back to the families, but they must now navigate the landscape without the automatic “certification” of the court.

Treelife is uniquely positioned to assist stakeholders in this transition. Our expertise in estate planning, corporate governance, and succession strategy ensures that your legacy is not only legally valid but operationally seamless.

• Legacy audits: Is your 20-year-old will still the best way to protect your heirs under the new law?
• Institutional liaising: We manage the paperwork process with banks and housing societies so you don’t have to.
• Strategic succession: For founders and HNIs, we design trust structures that render probate questions entirely moot.

References and Sources

All statutory analysis, data, frameworks, and conclusions above incorporate and rely upon Treelife’s internal report and the following publicly available sources:

• https://prsindia.org/files/bills_acts/bills_parliament/2025/Repealing_And_Amending_Bill,2025.pdf
• https://prsindia.org/files/bills_acts/acts_parliament/2025/The_Repealing_and_Amending_Act_2025.pdf
• https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/wealth/plan/probate-no-longer-mandatory-in-these-three-metros-what-repealing-section-213-means-for-wills-and-estates/articleshow/126309769.cms
• https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/wealth/legal/will/govt-scraps-mandatory-probate-of-wills-is-voluntary-probate-still-a-smart-move/articleshow/126137433.cms
• https://trilegal.com/knowledge_repository/trilegal-update-removal-of-the-mandatory-probate-requirement-under-the-indian-succession-act/
• https://www.khaitanco.com/thought-leadership/Probate-no-longer-mandatory-Impact-of-the-Repealing-and-Amending-Act-2025-on-Testamentary-Succession
• https://ssrana.in/articles/a-long-overdue-reform-repeal-of-section-213-of-the-indian-succession-act-1925/
• https://www.sebi.gov.in/legal/circulars/sep-2025/smooth-transmission-of-securities-from-nominee-to-legal-heir_77204.html
• https://www.taxmann.com/post/blog/sebi-introduces-tlh-reporting-code-for-transmission-of-securities

Regulatory references

• Indian Succession Act, 1925 — Section 213 (omitted), Section 212, Section 273, Section 63, Section 370
• Repealing and Amending Act, 2025 — Second Schedule, Savings Clause
• Companies Act, 2013 — share transmission provisions
• Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 — inheritance and repatriation provisions
• Income Tax Act, 1961 — Section 47(iii) (exemption for inherited assets)
• SEBI Circular on Smooth Transmission of Securities from Nominee to Legal Heir, September 2025

External sources

• https://www.sebi.gov.in
• https://prsindia.org
• https://incometaxindia.gov.in
• https://rbi.org.in
• https://mca.gov.in