296. It shall be lawful for the Public Trustee to make a grant of probate or letters of administration limited in respect of its duration, or in respect to any particular property, or in respect of the power of dealing with any property of the estate, or in respect to any particular purpose, in any case where he considers that at the stage at which he makes the grant-that a larger grant is unnecessary; and in particular: -
| (a) where any legal proceeding touching the validity of the will of a deceased person or relating to the grant of probate or letters of administration is pending, the Public Trustee may, either on the ground of undue delay or otherwise, grant letters of administration to the estate of the deceased to an administrator limited for the duration of such proceeding, and such administrator shall not have the right of distributing the estate; |
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| (b) where a person is appointed executor of a will for a particular purpose only of the will, and not executor of the will generally, probate may be granted to him limited for that purpose only; |
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| (c) where for the purpose of paying estate duty or for any other sufficient cause it becomes necessary to sell any property of the estate of a deceased person prior to the issue of probate or letters of administration, the Public Trustee may grant letters limited for the purpose of selling such property; |
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| (d) when the original will of the deceased person has been lost since the testator's death, but a copy has been preserved, probate of that copy may be granted, limited until the original be produced before the Public Trustee; |
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| (e) when the original, will is in the hands of some person residing out of Sri Lanka, who cannot be compelled to give it up to the executor, and if the executor produces a copy, ' probate of that copy may be granted, limited until the original be produced before the Public Trustee; |
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| (f) in either of the eases set out in the last two preceding paragraphs, if no copy has been preserved or is available, probate of a draft will may be granted, or if no draft be available, probate of the contents or of the substance and effect of the will, so far as they can be established by evidence, may be granted; |
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| (g) if the document admitted to proof under the preceding paragraph be a, copy of or substitute for the original, on account of the original itself not being forthcoming by reason of one of the causes mentioned in paragraph (d) or paragraph (e) of this section, the grant shall further be limited until the original is produced before the Public Trustee; |
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| (h) if the sole executor of a will resides, or if there are more executors than one and all the executors reside, out of Sri Lanka, or such of the executors as reside in Sri Lanka decline to act, the Public Trustee may grant administration with copy of the will annexed to any person within Sri Lanka, as attorney of the executor or of the executors, who shall be appointed for that purpose by power of attorney, the grant so made being limited for the use and benefit of the principal until the executor or one of the executors comes in and obtains probate for himself. If, however, the person applying for the grant is not the attorney of all the executors, where there are more than one, the grant of administration shall not be made to him until the remaining executors have declined to act; |
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| (i) in the case of a will, if there be within Sri Lanka no executor willing to act, and if all other persons interested in having the property of the testator administered are out of Sri Lanka, grant of administration may be made to the attorney of a person so interested limited until the principal shall come in and obtain administration for himself; |
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| (j) where the executor appointed under a will or the person interested in having the property of the testator administered, or where in the of intestacy the heir entitled to letters of administration is a minor or a lunatic or a mentally defective person resident within Sri Lanka, the grant of administration with copy of the will annexed, or grant of administration only, as the case may be, may be made to the curator or manager of such minor, lunatic, or mentally defective person limited for the duration of such minority, lunacy, or mental defectiveness, as the case may be. |
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Sri Lanka Consolidated Acts