Under Indian law, when a Will has been proved and deposited in the Probate Court in a foreign country, and a Grant of Probate has been obtained from the foreign Probate Court, i.e. in England; the executors need to file a fresh Petition in India for a Grant of Letter of Administration (Section 228 Indian Succession Act, 1925). There is therefore no procedure for resealing the English Grant in India. You have to apply for a new Grant of Letters of Administration in India based upon the English Grant.

The documents needed for the purpose of obtaining the Grant in India are:

(1)        Sealed and certified (by the Probate Registry) copy of the English Grant;

(2)        Authenticated copy of the Will certified by a Notary or by the Probate Registry. In this case the usual sealed and certified copy of the Will from the Probate Registry will be sufficient;

(3)        The names and addresses of the person applying for the Grant in India (this will usually be the local person appointed under the Power of Attorney – see below). The names and addresses of the Executors are set out in the English Grant of Probate;

(4)        A list of assets held in India by the deceased with the value both as at date of death and at the current valuations; and

(5)        If any shares are held in dematerialised form (electronic or book-entry form – this usually occurs when the share certificate has either been converted into electronic form, or where no share certificate has ever been issued), then details of the account which holds the dematerialised shares are needed.

The fees are expensive, and are usually in the region of Rs.300,000 (about £3,750) plus out-of-pocket expenses actually incurred and Service Tax of 10.3%. You should therefore budget about £4,500.

For the purposes of filing the Petition in India, it will be necessary for the executors to give a Power of Attorney in favour of someone in India. This is usually the local lawyer.

The time frame for the new Indian Grant of Letters of Administration to be issued is about 3 – 4 months from the time that the documents are filed with the Probate Court in India.

If there is no English Grant of Probate, probate will have to be applied for in India with consequential procedures and paper work being increased substantially, and resulting in a much longer time frame than that mentioned above. As a result, you are strongly advised to obtain the English Grant first, which then will save paper work, hassles, costs and time in India.