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Will (Vasiyat)

At a glance

Price
₹399 · GST included
Stamp duty
Nil, in both jurisdictions, and that is a published rate rather than an inference.
Registration
Optional — but the two jurisdictions price it about twenty times apart, so know the figure before you set out.
Witnesses
Two, and they are the document.

₹399

GST included

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Also called

  • Will
  • Last Will and Testament
  • Vasiyat
  • Vasiat
  • Wasiyat
  • Vasiyatnama
  • Wasiyatnama
  • Vasiyat Nama

Whether you can fill this in here

You can fill this in here

You can fill this one in on this site, and read the whole draft on screen before you decide anything about it. It is a carefully drafted template; it is not advice about your own facts.

Fill this one in
Why you need it

When you need it

A Will says who gets what you own after you die, who collects and distributes it, and who looks after your minor children. This template is drafted for a testator whose property, or most of it, lies in the State of Punjab or the Union Territory of Chandigarh. It covers an ordinary estate: a house or plot, land entered in the jamabandi, a Chandigarh Estate Office or Housing Board sector property, land in a Chandigarh revenue village such as Manimajra or a lal dora or phirni area, bank accounts and deposits, shares and mutual funds, jewellery, vehicles and personal effects — with an executor and an alternate, specific gifts, the residue, a guardian for minors, and the two-witness attestation required by section 63 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925. You must be at least eighteen and of sound mind (section 59). It costs almost nothing to make. Every rupee figure in this paragraph was taken from the two departments' own published tables and checked on 6 September 2026; neither table carries a date or a notification number on its face, so re-check them before you draw the money. No stamp duty is charged on a Will in either jurisdiction, so you buy no stamp paper. Registration is optional and cheap in Chandigarh — Rs 200 plus a Rs 20 pasting fee — and considerably dearer in Punjab, where the Revenue Department's published table puts a Will at a Rs 4,000 registration fee plus Rs 500 facilitation and the Rs 200 pasting fee that attaches to every document. And in the ordinary case your family will not need probate: section 213 read with section 57 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 confines that requirement to towns and territories that do not include Punjab or Chandigarh, so a Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain or Parsi Will here can be acted on without a grant. If you own property in Chandigarh, read the Estate Office position before you decide who gets what. Rule 16 of the Chandigarh Estate Rules, 2007 and Rule 14 of the older Chandigarh (Sale of Sites and Buildings) Rules, 1960 both forbid fragmentation of a site or building, and the Supreme Court held on 10 January 2023, in Residents Welfare Association v. Union Territory of Chandigarh, that a residential unit in Phase-I may not be fragmented, divided, bifurcated or apartmentalised. The Deputy Commissioner-cum-Estate Officer's Public Notice effective 10 February 2023 then narrowed what the Estate Office will act on: it permits a Will bequeathing shares in a residential property only within the family, and stops transfers and mutations outside its permitted categories until the Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee decides. That Public Notice does not define "family", and the closest published list — Rule 7(iii) of the 2007 Rules — is a narrow one: mother, father, spouse, son, daughter. A Chandigarh Will that leaves a floor to one person and a floor to another, or a share of a sector house to a brother, a nephew or a daughter-in-law, may be a perfectly valid Will that the Estate Office simply will not mutate. If the site is leasehold or was allotted at concessional rates, ask about Rule 7 as well: the fifteen-year bar in Rule 7(i) and the one-third unearned increase in Rule 7(ii) are the expensive items, and whether a devolution by Will counts as a "transfer" for either is not settled. Ask at the Estate Office, Town Hall, Sector 17-C, whether the stoppage is still running and what it will demand, before you settle the clause. Do NOT use this template if you are Muslim — section 58 keeps the testamentary-succession provisions of the Act (Part VI) away from a Muslim's property, and Muslim law limits a bequest to one-third of the estate without the heirs' consent. Do NOT use it as a joint or "Double Will" with your spouse: Chandigarh's rate table has a separate Rs 400 line for a Double Will, meaning a single instrument executed by two testators, and this template is not one and should not be adapted into one — make two separate Wills instead. Do NOT use it to create a life interest or any continuing trust, to provide for a dependant with a disability, to pass on the position of karta of a Hindu undivided family or control of a business, or where anyone may later say you were pressured or lacked capacity. Do NOT use it to move property now. A Will speaks only from death. If you want the transfer to happen in your lifetime you need a gift deed, a partition or a family settlement — and those are charged, on figures also checked on 6 September 2026: a gift in Punjab attracts 5% stamp duty plus 1% Social Infrastructure Cess plus a 1% PIDB charge, while in Chandigarh a gift attracts 5% per the Chandigarh Administration's published table — many property listings say 6%, and no notification moving between the two has been located, so confirm at the Sub-Registrar, 30 Bays Building, Sector 17 — and a family settlement 2%, with a transfer deed between blood relations exempted from duty. And do NOT expect this Will to partition Punjab revenue land on the ground: it can give shares, but dividing a holding by metes and bounds is a separate proceeding before a revenue officer of at least the rank of Assistant Collector, first grade, under sections 111 to 126 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887. If you own property outside India, read clause 2.2 and the "will made in another country" field before you sign. This Will revokes every earlier testamentary writing of yours anywhere in the world unless you fill that field in, so a testator who already has a will abroad and signs this one without using the carve-out has revoked it. The residuary clause does reach property wherever situated, but that is a poor substitute: a court outside India may be slow to act on an Indian Will, or may not act on it at all. The usual course is a separate will in that country, with the carve-out in this one so that the two stand side by side instead of cancelling each other.

See stamp duty, registration and witnesses

What follows is written for Punjab and Chandigarh. It states the position there rather than describing how it varies, so the amounts below are the ones that apply — worth confirming at the sub-registrar’s office, because rates change. If the property is anywhere else in India, none of this is yours.

Stamp duty

Nil, in both jurisdictions, and that is a published rate rather than an inference. The Government of Punjab, Department of Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management, in its "Document wise detail of Stamp Duty, Registration Fee and Facilitation charges" table on revenue.punjab.gov.in, enters item 11 "Will/Cancellation of Will" at Stamp Duty — Nil (table retrieved 6 September 2026; it carries no date and no notification number on its face). The Chandigarh Administration's published "Rates of Stamp Duty & Registration Fees" table enters item 10 "WILL/Cancellation of WILL" at Nil and item 11 "DOUBLE WILL" at NIL (table retrieved 6 September 2026; the PDF was created 17 May 2020 and likewise carries no notification number). A codicil is treated the same way. So buy no stamp paper. You do not need an authorised stamp vendor, you do not need the Central Treasury, and you do not need an e-Stamp certificate — which matters in Chandigarh, where a citizen can buy an e-Stamp online through e-Sampark only up to Rs 500 and anything above Rs 50,000 must be deposited by challan at the State Bank of India, Treasury Branch, Sector 17. A Will needs none of that. Plain paper, signed and attested, is a valid Will. The ad valorem cost, if it ever comes, comes later and is a court fee, not stamp duty. If your family does have to take out probate or letters of administration, Article 11 of Schedule I to the Court Fees Act, 1870 charges the grant on the value of the estate — as the Schedule stands centrally, 2.5% where the value exceeds Rs 10,000 and does not exceed Rs 50,000, and 3% above that — and a succession certificate for debts and securities is charged separately under Article 12. That Schedule has been amended more than once for this territory. Confirm the current figure at the court-fee counter of the District Court that would hear the petition — the District Courts of your district in Punjab, or the District Courts, Sector 43, Chandigarh — before you budget for it. Watch the substance, not the title. A deed that moves anything while you are alive is a gift, a family settlement or a release however it is headed, and it is charged accordingly: a gift in Punjab attracts 5% stamp duty plus 1% Social Infrastructure Cess plus a 1% PIDB charge on the consideration or the Collector rate, whichever is higher, the Collector rate being the one published for the revenue estate by the Deputy Commissioner; in Chandigarh a gift or conveyance attracts 5% on the value or consideration, whichever is higher (the Administration's own table says 5%, though many property listings say 6% — confirm at the Sub-Registrar, 30 Bays Building, Sector 17, before relying on either), a family settlement 2%, and a transfer deed between blood relations is exempted. All of those figures were checked on 6 September 2026. None of it touches this Will, because this Will transfers nothing today.

Registration

Optional — but the two jurisdictions price it about twenty times apart, so know the figure before you set out. Both figures below were checked on 6 September 2026. Section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908 does not require a Will to be registered; section 18(e) makes it optional, and an unregistered Will is completely valid. There is no time limit: the proviso to section 23 lets a Will be presented at any time, and section 29(1) lets you present it, at your option, to any Registrar or any Sub-Registrar — not only the one for the place where the property lies. After your death your executor, or a person claiming as legatee, may present it under section 40, and the officer must then satisfy himself under section 41 that you are dead, that you executed the Will, and that you were competent to do so. In Punjab, present it to the Sub-Registrar of the tehsil, or the Joint Sub-Registrar of the sub-tehsil. The Revenue Department's document-wise table puts a Will or a cancellation of a Will at a registration fee of Rs 4,000, facilitation charges of Rs 500, and the pasting fee of Rs 200 that it applies to all documents — about Rs 4,700 in all, with no stamp duty and no PIDB charge. Because that table bears no date, ask the counter to confirm the Rs 4,000 before you draw the money. On timing, be careful what you rely on: the notified one-day service under the Punjab Transparency and Accountability in Delivery of Public Services Act, 2018 is the registration of a sale, lease, power of attorney or partnership deed, and it has not been established that a Will is a notified service at all — so do not assume the Right to Service appeal ladder to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate and then the Deputy Commissioner is available for this instrument, and ask the Designated Officer in writing under which notification your Will has been taken in. A Will presented after the testator's death under sections 40 and 41 is in any event not a counter-speed transaction, because the officer has to satisfy himself of the death, the execution and the competence. What is clearly notified, and useful here, is the certified copy of a registered document at seven days; two extra days are added where you apply through a Sewa Kendra rather than the counter itself. In Chandigarh, present it to the Sub-Registrar, UT Chandigarh, 30 Bays Building, Ground Floor, Rooms 1 and 2, Sector 17 (next to the old Estate Office building, adjoining the Central State Library). The Administration's published table puts a Will or a cancellation of a Will at a registration fee of Rs 200 plus a Rs 20 pasting fee, and a Double Will at Rs 400 plus Rs 20. The office keeps narrow hours: presentation only between 12.00 noon and 1.00 pm, registration only between 3.00 and 5.00 pm, and documents collected at the counter between 9.00 and 11.00 am. Bring the Will in duplicate — the checklist requires triplicate only for a sale, transfer, gift or exchange of freehold urban property — with your photograph affixed to the deed. You do not need proof of ownership of the property for a Will; and if the property is in Chandigarh's rural belt (Manimajra, a lal dora or phirni area) you do not need a Fard or the Naib Tehsildar (Revenue)'s report either, because the checklist excepts a Will from both. Note that the exception is for registering the Will. The mutation that follows your death in a Chandigarh revenue village is a separate proceeding before the Union Territory's own revenue officers, and the Fard will be wanted there. What registration buys you is proof that a document of this content existed on that date, which makes a forgery allegation much harder to run. It proves nothing about your capacity, and a later unregistered Will still revokes a registered one. If you want more than that, sections 42 to 46 of the Registration Act let you deposit the Will in a sealed cover with the Registrar of the district — the Registrar, not the Sub-Registrar. Ask at the Deputy Commissioner's office which officer holds the Registrar's charge and what the deposit fee is, because that figure appears on neither published rate table. Probate is a separate question and the usual answer here is no. Section 213 read with section 57 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 makes probate a precondition for a Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh or Jain Will only in the towns and territories that section 57 names, and neither Punjab nor Chandigarh is among them; a Parsi testator has the benefit of the same limitation. An Indian Christian testator is the exception — section 213(1) is not cut down in the same way, so a grant is generally needed before a court will recognise a right as executor or legatee. Where a grant is sought, the petition goes to the District Judge under section 264, in the district where you ordinarily resided; the Punjab and Haryana High Court has no ordinary original civil jurisdiction, so there is no High Court petition to file. One thing registration will not do is transfer anything. For land in the Punjab revenue record the beneficiary must still report to the Halqa Patwari and obtain a mutation of inheritance sanctioned by the Circle Revenue Officer. For a Chandigarh sector property the beneficiary must apply to the Estate Office for change of ownership, since Chandigarh's automatic mutation is triggered by a registered deed and a Will is not one. For land in a Chandigarh revenue village the application goes to the Union Territory's revenue officers at the Deputy Commissioner's Office, Sector 17 — not to the Estate Office, and not to a Punjab tehsil.

Notarisation

Not required, and no substitute for anything. Validity rests on section 63 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 — your signature plus two attesting witnesses — and no notary can supply either. Notarisation adds a thin evidentiary layer: identity and a date. Do not let a notary's stamp stand in for a missing second witness, and do not confuse it with registration, which is the far more valuable step here. Be careful not to import an Estate Office habit into your Will. The Chandigarh Estate Office now accepts notarised affidavits in place of affidavits sworn before an Executive Magistrate, so Chandigarh property files are full of notarised paper and people assume a Will needs the same. It does not, and a notarised Will with only one attesting witness is still void. If you want to spend money on making this Will hard to attack, spend it here instead. For an elderly or unwell testator, a registered medical practitioner's certificate of capacity, dated the day of signing and kept with the Will, is worth more than any notarial act; so is a short video of the signing that shows both witnesses present. Do not name a doctor on the form unless the certificate is actually in your hand and will be annexed before you sign, because the clause that prints recites the certificate as a fact and annexes it as Annexure A — a recital of a certificate that is not there is the loose thread a challenger pulls on. If the Will is executed outside India, note that the Chandigarh Estate Office requires any document prepared or executed outside India and used in one of its transactions to be embossed first by the Finance Department of the Chandigarh Administration — a routine trap for a testator living abroad whose executor will later deal with a sector property.

Witnesses

Two, and they are the document. Under section 63(c) of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 each witness must have seen you sign, or received your personal acknowledgement of the signature, and each must sign in your presence. The Act does not require both to be present together; this template records that they were, so do it that way. A BEQUEST TO AN ATTESTING WITNESS, OR TO THAT WITNESS'S SPOUSE, IS VOID under section 67. The Will survives; the gift dies. Never use a beneficiary, a beneficiary's spouse, or the guardian you appoint. An executor who takes no benefit may attest. Nothing in the form compares the names you typed into the gift boxes with the names you typed into the witness boxes — that check is done by eye, by you, before anybody signs, and clause 10.2 of the Will recites that you have done it. Choose witnesses younger than you, record full addresses and identity numbers, and warn them that a surviving attesting witness will usually have to be examined in court to prove the Will. If you cannot sign your name, section 63(a) also lets you execute by a thumb impression or other mark, or by another person signing for you in your presence and by your direction. In Punjab and Chandigarh a thumb impression is common and perfectly good — but only if the attestation says how the Will was executed and which thumb was used. The execution block carries a note telling the witnesses exactly what to write; read it with them before anyone puts pen to paper. If you plan to register, pick your witnesses with the counter in mind and save yourself a second signing. Registration in both jurisdictions is administered under the Punjab Registration Manual, and the Chandigarh checklist states the point plainly: two witnesses for all deeds, and the first witness must qualify under paragraph 127 of that Manual — in practice a Lambardar, Sarpanch or Member Panchayat for a rural area, or a councillor, gazetted officer or advocate, with both witnesses known to each other and the first known to the Sub-Registrar. Strictly, the persons who identify you before the registering officer need not be the same two who attest under section 63, but in practice the same two do both. Choosing one attesting witness who also fits paragraph 127 means you do not have to assemble a second set of people on registration day. Your photograph must be affixed to the deed presented for registration, and in Chandigarh a Will is presented in duplicate.

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Sample preview — placeholder answers, not your data

WILL (VASIYAT)

of Gurcharan Singh Gill

I, Gurcharan Singh Gill, aged 25,000 years, son of Late Sardar Mohan Singh Gill, holding PAN AAAPG1234C and Aadhaar ending 4821, resident of X, make this Will at Ludhiana, Punjab on 1 April 2026. By religion I am Hindu.

1. DECLARATION

1.1 I am 25,000 years of age. Being of full age — that is, eighteen years or more — I am competent to make a Will under section 59 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925. If the figure written into this clause is below eighteen, this document is void as a Will and no person is to act upon it.

1.2 I am of sound mind and memory, and I understand the nature of this Will, the extent of the property I am giving away by it, and the persons who have a claim upon me.

1.3 I make this Will of my own free will. No person has coerced, misled, induced or unduly influenced me, and I am not under the influence of any intoxicant or of any medication that clouds my judgment.

1.4 This Will takes effect only upon my death. Until then I remain free to deal with, sell, mortgage, gift or consume any property mentioned in it, and free to revoke or alter this Will.

1.5 This Will is written on plain paper and bears no stamp. No stamp duty is chargeable on a Will either in the State of Punjab or in the Union Territory of Chandigarh, and its want of stamp is not a defect.

Medical opinion on my capacity. Dr. Anjali Rao, MBBS, MD, Punjab Medical Council Reg. No. 45231 examined me on the date of this Will and has certified in writing that I am of sound mind and capable of understanding the nature and effect of what I am signing. That certificate is annexed to this Will as Annexure A, and it was annexed before I signed.

2. REVOCATION OF EARLIER WILLS

2.1 I revoke all Wills, codicils and other testamentary writings made by me at any time before today, with the single exception set out in clause 2.3 below. This is my last Will.

2.2 A warning I have read before signing. A will made by me in any other country is a testamentary writing, and clause 2.1 revokes it too unless clause 2.3 excepts it. Revoking a foreign will can leave property lying abroad to be distributed by the law of the country where it lies instead of by me. Clause 6.1 of this Will reaches my property wherever situated, but it is not a reliable substitute for a will made where the property is: a court outside India may be slow to act on an Indian Will, or may decline to act on it at all.

Earlier Wills expressly revoked. For the avoidance of doubt, the Wills and testamentary writings revoked by clause 2.1 include: Will dated 4 August 2014, registered as Document No. 2231/2014 with the Sub-Registrar, Ludhiana (East)

2.3 A will made in another country, which I do NOT revoke. Clause 2.1 does not revoke, and nothing else in this Will revokes, the following will: My will dated 12 March 2021 made at Toronto, Ontario, Canada, held by Sandhu & Co., Barristers, Brampton, which disposes only of my property situated in Canada, namely the condominium unit 1408, 250 Webb Drive, Mississauga, and my accounts with the Toronto-Dominion Bank. That will continues to govern the property it disposes of. This Will does not dispose of that property, and my Executor is not to deal with that property under this Will. Where this Will and that will are inconsistent in relation to that property, that will prevails; in relation to all my other property, this Will prevails. I have made the two documents intending them to stand side by side.

3. MY FAMILY

3.1 My family and the persons dependent on me are: My wife Harpreet Kaur, aged 58. My son Arjun Singh Gill, aged 32, resident of Mohali. My daughter Simran Kaur Sidhu, aged 29, resident of Sector 34, Chandigarh. My mother Kamla Devi, aged 84, who lives with me.

3.2 I have considered the position of each of them in making this Will.

4. EXECUTOR

4.1 I appoint Arjun Singh Gill, my son, resident of X, to be the Executor of this Will.

Alternate Executor. If Arjun Singh Gill predeceases me, or is unwilling or unable to act or to continue to act, I appoint X, resident of X, to be the Executor of this Will in place of Arjun Singh Gill.

4.2 My Executor shall obtain probate or letters of administration where the law requires it or where my Executor considers it prudent, shall collect and take charge of my estate, shall pay what is payable under clause 5, and shall distribute the rest in accordance with this Will. Clause 9.4 records my understanding of when a grant is and is not needed.

4.3 My Executor shall not be required to furnish security. My Executor may reimburse reasonable out-of-pocket expenses from my estate but shall take no remuneration for acting, unless a court directs otherwise.

4.4 For the purpose of paying what is payable under clause 5 and of distributing my estate, my Executor may sell, call in and convert into money the whole or any part of my estate, and may give good receipts and discharges for it. This power is subject to clause 8.2, and to section 307(2) of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 where that sub-section applies.

5. DEBTS, EXPENSES AND TAXES

5.1 Before any distribution, my Executor shall pay out of my estate my lawful debts, my funeral and last-illness expenses, the costs of administering my estate and of obtaining any grant, and any tax lawfully payable in respect of my estate.

5.2 If any property given by this Will is subject to a mortgage, charge, hypothecation or unpaid loan at the date of my death, the person taking that property takes it subject to that liability, unless the gift itself provides otherwise.

5.3 Arrears of ground rent, misuse or non-construction charges, property tax, water and electricity dues and any other sum recoverable as arrears of land revenue in respect of any property given by this Will shall be discharged by my Executor out of my estate before that property is distributed, so far as my estate permits.

SPECIFIC GIFTS — IMMOVABLE PROPERTY

Subject to clause 5, I give the following immovable property: My house No. 1123, Sector 40-B, Chandigarh, measuring 10 marla, held on freehold tenure, to my wife Harpreet Kaur absolutely. My flat No. B-704, Omaxe Royal Residency, Ludhiana, admeasuring 1,180 sq ft built-up, to my son Arjun Singh Gill absolutely.

MY LAND ENTERED IN THE PUNJAB REVENUE RECORD

The following land of mine is entered in the revenue record of the State of Punjab: Khewat No. 112, Khatauni No. 236, Khasra Nos. 45/2 and 46/1, measuring 4 kanal 8 marla, situated in village Jandiali, Hadbast No. 214, Tehsil Payal, District Ludhiana, as entered in the jamabandi for 2021-22 — to my son Arjun Singh Gill and my daughter Simran Kaur Sidhu in equal undivided shares.

I record the following for my Executor and for whoever takes this land under this Will.

(a) A jamabandi entry is not a document of title. Under section 44 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887 an entry in the record-of-rights or the annual record is presumed to be true only until the contrary is proved, and section 45 sends a person who disputes it to a suit for a declaratory decree. This Will does not alter the record; it is evidence to be produced before the revenue officer who does.

(b) On my death the person taking this land must report the acquisition to the Halqa Patwari of the village so that a mutation of inheritance is entered under section 34 of that Act, checked by the Field Kanungo, and placed before the Circle Revenue Officer — the Naib Tehsildar or Tehsildar notified as Assistant Collector, second grade — for attestation. This Will, and a certified copy of my death certificate, must be produced at that attestation.

(c) A person who fails to report the acquisition within three months is liable, at the discretion of the Collector, to a fine of up to five times the mutation fee, under section 39 of that Act. The mutation fee published by the Department of Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management is Rs 600, checked on 6 September 2026; but the sum actually payable is the one demanded by the Circle Revenue Officer at attestation, which is where it is recovered under section 38(2) of that Act and paragraph 7.33 of the Punjab Land Records Manual, and my Executor is to take the figure from that officer rather than from this deed.

(d) Nothing in this Will displaces the sanctioning officer's duty to satisfy himself of the entitlement. If attestation is refused, the remedy is an appeal to the Collector within thirty days, then to the Commissioner within sixty days and to the Financial Commissioner within ninety days, under sections 13 and 14 of that Act — not a fresh mutation, which paragraph 7.30 of the Punjab Land Records Manual forbids as a means of correcting a jamabandi entry. But where the original order is confirmed on first appeal, no further appeal lies: that is proviso (i) to section 13, and the door closes at the Collector. The remedy then is the declaratory suit under section 45 mentioned in paragraph (a) above, and my Executor should take advice on limitation at once rather than presenting a second appeal that will be refused.

(e) This Will gives shares. It does not partition the land by metes and bounds. If those taking it wish to hold separately, they must have a partition made by a revenue officer of at least the rank of Assistant Collector, first grade, under sections 111 to 126 of that Act, or apply for partition by mutual consent, which is a notified service.

What this document is for

Anyone eighteen or over and of sound mind uses this to say, in writing, who gets what after they die, who collects the estate and pays off its debts, and who looks after any minor children. It is drafted for a testator whose property — a house, land in the jamabandi, a Chandigarh sector or Housing Board property, bank accounts, shares, jewellery, vehicles — lies mostly in Punjab or in the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

It exists to head off exactly the arguments that start the moment somebody dies without one: what the deceased "would have wanted", who is actually entitled to the house, and who is supposed to be looking after the children. Naming an executor and a guardian in writing, while you are of sound mind and can explain your own reasons, is very different from leaving your family to work all of that out — or fight about it — afterwards.

Before you use this — check whether your family will need probate

For a Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain or Parsi testator here, your family will not usually need to go through probate to act on this Will once you are gone — Punjab and Chandigarh are not among the places where the law makes probate a precondition for those communities. An Indian Christian testator is the exception: probate is usually still needed, so get that checked separately if it applies to you.

Stamp paper and registration

Stamp paper needed

No

Typical stamp duty — Punjab

Nil. The Punjab Revenue Department's own published fee table enters a Will at Nil stamp duty, so no stamp paper is bought for it at all — plain paper, properly signed and witnessed, is a valid Will. Source: checked 6 September 2026.

Typical stamp duty — Chandigarh

Nil, the same as Punjab. The Chandigarh Administration's published table enters a Will, and even a Double Will, at Nil stamp duty. Source: checked 6 September 2026.

Registration at the Sub-Registrar

No — Optional in both places. Chandigarh's cost is settled — about Rs 220 (a Rs 200 registration fee plus a Rs 20 pasting fee). Punjab's is not: the department's own published table prices a Will's registration at a Rs 4,000 fee, a striking figure for an instrument that carries Nil stamp duty and about twenty times what the same registration costs in Chandigarh — confirm it at the Sub-Registrar's counter before relying on Rs 4,000 (or the roughly Rs 4,700 all-in figure) from this page. Registration proves that a document of this content existed on that date; it does not make an otherwise-valid Will any more valid, and an unregistered Will is completely enforceable.

Notary or witnesses

No notary — it adds nothing this document actually needs and is no substitute for a missing second witness. Two attesting witnesses ARE required by law (section 63, Indian Succession Act, 1925), and neither of them, nor their spouse, may be a beneficiary — the gift to that person is void even though the rest of the Will survives.

What you will need before you start

  • Your own identity document, address, and religion — a few of the rules that apply turn on it
  • Full names, relationships and addresses of everyone you are leaving something to, precise enough that "my nephew Rahul" cannot later mean two people
  • Your chosen executor, and an alternate in case the first cannot or will not act when the time comes
  • A guardian's name, if you have children under eighteen — the form will not let you finish without one once you list a minor child
  • Two witnesses in mind who take nothing at all under the Will — not a beneficiary, and not a beneficiary's spouse
  • A rough list of what you own, for your executor's benefit — not legally required, but genuinely useful to whoever has to administer the estate

Common mistakes

  • Naming a beneficiary's spouse as one of the two attesting witnesses — the gift to that beneficiary becomes void, even though the rest of the Will stays valid.
  • Not appointing an alternate executor — if the only named executor dies first or refuses to act, the family ends up petitioning a court for letters of administration, the exact trip a Will is meant to avoid.
  • Assuming a Will has to be registered to count — it does not; an unregistered Will that is properly signed and witnessed is completely valid on its own.

Questions people ask before using this document

Does a Will need to be registered to be valid in Punjab or Chandigarh?

No. Section 18(e) of the Registration Act, 1908 makes registering a Will optional, and an unregistered Will that is properly signed and attested by two witnesses is completely valid. Registration only adds proof that this exact document existed on the date it was registered — useful if a forgery is ever alleged, but not a condition of validity.

How much does it cost to register a Will in Punjab compared to Chandigarh?

Very different amounts for the same document, and only one side of that gap is settled. Chandigarh's table puts registration at a Rs 200 fee plus a Rs 20 pasting fee — about Rs 220 — and that figure is solid. Punjab's published fee table puts the same thing at a Rs 4,000 registration fee, for around Rs 4,700 all in with facilitation and pasting charges, but that is a striking figure for an instrument that carries no stamp duty at all, and we are not treating it as settled until it is confirmed at the counter. Do not budget Rs 4,000 for Punjab on the strength of this page alone.

Can I name one of my witnesses as a beneficiary in my Will?

You can, but the gift to them will not take effect. Section 67 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 makes a bequest to an attesting witness, or to that witness's spouse, void — the Will itself remains valid, only that particular gift fails. Choose two witnesses who take nothing under the Will at all, and check the names on your gift list against your witness list before anyone signs.

Does my family need to go through probate to use this Will?

Usually not. Probate is required only in the towns and territories section 57 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 names, and neither Punjab nor Chandigarh is among them — so a Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain or Parsi testator's Will here can generally be acted on without a grant. An Indian Christian testator is the exception: probate is usually still needed, so get that checked separately if that applies to you.

Does a Will need to be stamped like a sale deed or a rent agreement?

No. Both the Punjab and the Chandigarh fee tables charge Nil stamp duty on a Will, so there is no stamp paper to buy at all — plain paper, signed by you and attested by your two witnesses, is enough. The cost that does vary sharply between the two places is the OPTIONAL registration fee, not stamping.

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Questions about this document

Does the Will (Vasiyat) need stamp paper or stamp duty in Punjab and Chandigarh?

Nil, in both jurisdictions, and that is a published rate rather than an inference. The Government of Punjab, Department of Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management, in its "Document wise detail of Stamp Duty, Registration Fee and Facilitation charges" table on revenue.punjab.gov.in, enters item 11 "Will/Cancellation of Will" at Stamp Duty — Nil (table retrieved 6 September 2026; it carries no date and no notification number on its face). The Chandigarh Administration's published "Rates of Stamp Duty & Registration Fees" table enters item 10 "WILL/Cancellation of WILL" at Nil and item 11 "DOUBLE WILL" at NIL (table retrieved 6 September 2026; the PDF was created 17 May 2020 and likewise carries no notification number). A codicil is treated the same way.

So buy no stamp paper. You do not need an authorised stamp vendor, you do not need the Central Treasury, and you do not need an e-Stamp certificate — which matters in Chandigarh, where a citizen can buy an e-Stamp online through e-Sampark only up to Rs 500 and anything above Rs 50,000 must be deposited by challan at the State Bank of India, Treasury Branch, Sector 17. A Will needs none of that. Plain paper, signed and attested, is a valid Will.

The ad valorem cost, if it ever comes, comes later and is a court fee, not stamp duty. If your family does have to take out probate or letters of administration, Article 11 of Schedule I to the Court Fees Act, 1870 charges the grant on the value of the estate — as the Schedule stands centrally, 2.5% where the value exceeds Rs 10,000 and does not exceed Rs 50,000, and 3% above that — and a succession certificate for debts and securities is charged separately under Article 12. That Schedule has been amended more than once for this territory. Confirm the current figure at the court-fee counter of the District Court that would hear the petition — the District Courts of your district in Punjab, or the District Courts, Sector 43, Chandigarh — before you budget for it.

Watch the substance, not the title. A deed that moves anything while you are alive is a gift, a family settlement or a release however it is headed, and it is charged accordingly: a gift in Punjab attracts 5% stamp duty plus 1% Social Infrastructure Cess plus a 1% PIDB charge on the consideration or the Collector rate, whichever is higher, the Collector rate being the one published for the revenue estate by the Deputy Commissioner; in Chandigarh a gift or conveyance attracts 5% on the value or consideration, whichever is higher (the Administration's own table says 5%, though many property listings say 6% — confirm at the Sub-Registrar, 30 Bays Building, Sector 17, before relying on either), a family settlement 2%, and a transfer deed between blood relations is exempted. All of those figures were checked on 6 September 2026. None of it touches this Will, because this Will transfers nothing today.

Does the Will (Vasiyat) need registration in Punjab and Chandigarh?

Optional — but the two jurisdictions price it about twenty times apart, so know the figure before you set out. Both figures below were checked on 6 September 2026.

Section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908 does not require a Will to be registered; section 18(e) makes it optional, and an unregistered Will is completely valid. There is no time limit: the proviso to section 23 lets a Will be presented at any time, and section 29(1) lets you present it, at your option, to any Registrar or any Sub-Registrar — not only the one for the place where the property lies. After your death your executor, or a person claiming as legatee, may present it under section 40, and the officer must then satisfy himself under section 41 that you are dead, that you executed the Will, and that you were competent to do so.

In Punjab, present it to the Sub-Registrar of the tehsil, or the Joint Sub-Registrar of the sub-tehsil. The Revenue Department's document-wise table puts a Will or a cancellation of a Will at a registration fee of Rs 4,000, facilitation charges of Rs 500, and the pasting fee of Rs 200 that it applies to all documents — about Rs 4,700 in all, with no stamp duty and no PIDB charge. Because that table bears no date, ask the counter to confirm the Rs 4,000 before you draw the money. On timing, be careful what you rely on: the notified one-day service under the Punjab Transparency and Accountability in Delivery of Public Services Act, 2018 is the registration of a sale, lease, power of attorney or partnership deed, and it has not been established that a Will is a notified service at all — so do not assume the Right to Service appeal ladder to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate and then the Deputy Commissioner is available for this instrument, and ask the Designated Officer in writing under which notification your Will has been taken in. A Will presented after the testator's death under sections 40 and 41 is in any event not a counter-speed transaction, because the officer has to satisfy himself of the death, the execution and the competence. What is clearly notified, and useful here, is the certified copy of a registered document at seven days; two extra days are added where you apply through a Sewa Kendra rather than the counter itself.

In Chandigarh, present it to the Sub-Registrar, UT Chandigarh, 30 Bays Building, Ground Floor, Rooms 1 and 2, Sector 17 (next to the old Estate Office building, adjoining the Central State Library). The Administration's published table puts a Will or a cancellation of a Will at a registration fee of Rs 200 plus a Rs 20 pasting fee, and a Double Will at Rs 400 plus Rs 20. The office keeps narrow hours: presentation only between 12.00 noon and 1.00 pm, registration only between 3.00 and 5.00 pm, and documents collected at the counter between 9.00 and 11.00 am. Bring the Will in duplicate — the checklist requires triplicate only for a sale, transfer, gift or exchange of freehold urban property — with your photograph affixed to the deed. You do not need proof of ownership of the property for a Will; and if the property is in Chandigarh's rural belt (Manimajra, a lal dora or phirni area) you do not need a Fard or the Naib Tehsildar (Revenue)'s report either, because the checklist excepts a Will from both. Note that the exception is for registering the Will. The mutation that follows your death in a Chandigarh revenue village is a separate proceeding before the Union Territory's own revenue officers, and the Fard will be wanted there.

What registration buys you is proof that a document of this content existed on that date, which makes a forgery allegation much harder to run. It proves nothing about your capacity, and a later unregistered Will still revokes a registered one. If you want more than that, sections 42 to 46 of the Registration Act let you deposit the Will in a sealed cover with the Registrar of the district — the Registrar, not the Sub-Registrar. Ask at the Deputy Commissioner's office which officer holds the Registrar's charge and what the deposit fee is, because that figure appears on neither published rate table.

Probate is a separate question and the usual answer here is no. Section 213 read with section 57 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 makes probate a precondition for a Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh or Jain Will only in the towns and territories that section 57 names, and neither Punjab nor Chandigarh is among them; a Parsi testator has the benefit of the same limitation. An Indian Christian testator is the exception — section 213(1) is not cut down in the same way, so a grant is generally needed before a court will recognise a right as executor or legatee. Where a grant is sought, the petition goes to the District Judge under section 264, in the district where you ordinarily resided; the Punjab and Haryana High Court has no ordinary original civil jurisdiction, so there is no High Court petition to file.

One thing registration will not do is transfer anything. For land in the Punjab revenue record the beneficiary must still report to the Halqa Patwari and obtain a mutation of inheritance sanctioned by the Circle Revenue Officer. For a Chandigarh sector property the beneficiary must apply to the Estate Office for change of ownership, since Chandigarh's automatic mutation is triggered by a registered deed and a Will is not one. For land in a Chandigarh revenue village the application goes to the Union Territory's revenue officers at the Deputy Commissioner's Office, Sector 17 — not to the Estate Office, and not to a Punjab tehsil.

What does the Will (Vasiyat) cost on Kaagazaat?

₹399, GST included.

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Does the Will (Vasiyat) need witnesses?

Two, and they are the document. Under section 63(c) of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 each witness must have seen you sign, or received your personal acknowledgement of the signature, and each must sign in your presence. The Act does not require both to be present together; this template records that they were, so do it that way.

A BEQUEST TO AN ATTESTING WITNESS, OR TO THAT WITNESS'S SPOUSE, IS VOID under section 67. The Will survives; the gift dies. Never use a beneficiary, a beneficiary's spouse, or the guardian you appoint. An executor who takes no benefit may attest. Nothing in the form compares the names you typed into the gift boxes with the names you typed into the witness boxes — that check is done by eye, by you, before anybody signs, and clause 10.2 of the Will recites that you have done it. Choose witnesses younger than you, record full addresses and identity numbers, and warn them that a surviving attesting witness will usually have to be examined in court to prove the Will.

If you cannot sign your name, section 63(a) also lets you execute by a thumb impression or other mark, or by another person signing for you in your presence and by your direction. In Punjab and Chandigarh a thumb impression is common and perfectly good — but only if the attestation says how the Will was executed and which thumb was used. The execution block carries a note telling the witnesses exactly what to write; read it with them before anyone puts pen to paper.

If you plan to register, pick your witnesses with the counter in mind and save yourself a second signing. Registration in both jurisdictions is administered under the Punjab Registration Manual, and the Chandigarh checklist states the point plainly: two witnesses for all deeds, and the first witness must qualify under paragraph 127 of that Manual — in practice a Lambardar, Sarpanch or Member Panchayat for a rural area, or a councillor, gazetted officer or advocate, with both witnesses known to each other and the first known to the Sub-Registrar. Strictly, the persons who identify you before the registering officer need not be the same two who attest under section 63, but in practice the same two do both. Choosing one attesting witness who also fits paragraph 127 means you do not have to assemble a second set of people on registration day. Your photograph must be affixed to the deed presented for registration, and in Chandigarh a Will is presented in duplicate.

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