Definitions

Section 2 of the Goa Succession, Special Notaries and Inventory Proceeding Act, 2012 deals with definitions. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,- (a) "absent person" means a person who, without appointing an attorney to manage his properties, has left the place of his residence and his whereabouts are not known and is so adjudged by a competent Court;

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,- (a) "absent person" means a person who, without appointing an attorney to manage his properties, has left the place of his residence and his whereabouts are not known and is so adjudged by a competent Court;

(b) "assets" means properties, movable or immovable, corporeal, whether animate or inanimate, or incorporeal, unless repugnant to the context and includes liabilities;

(c) "authentic document" means a document drawn by a public official or with his intervention as required by law and such document constitutes proof of the veracity of the acts done by the public official and the veracity of the facts which have occurred in his presence or which he has certified and was competent to certify, unless it is proved that the document itself is fabricated or false;

(d) "conferee" means the person, who has to return the assets gifted to him to the mass of the inheritance for the purpose of collation;

(e) "deaf and dumb" means a person who is deaf and dumb and is not capable of managing his assets and is so adjudged by a competent court;

(f) "estate leaver" means the person upon whose death the transmission of his estate takes place;

(g) "forced heir" means the heir whom the estate leaver cannot deprive of the portion of his estate reserved to such heir by law, except in cases where the law permits the estate leaver to disinherit him;

(h) "head of the family" means the person who is entrusted with the duty to give the list of the assets and liabilities of an inheritance and with the management of the inheritance till the finalization of the partition;

(i) "inofficious gift or will" means a gift or a will made by the estate leaver which impairs the legitime of the forced heir;

(j) "interdict" means a person who is declared to be incompetent to manage his assets by an order of the court;

(k) "inventory proceeding" means a proceeding to partition the inheritance of a deceased person or to obtain a formal order of allotment of inheritance by the court;

(1) "legal or intestate succession" means the succession which takes place by operation of law;

(m) "liabilities" include all debts, obligations, burdens and encumbrances;

(n) "matrimonial regime" means a system of rules which govern the ownership and management of the property of married persons as between themselves and towards third parties;

(o) "moiety holder" means a spouse who has a right to moiety; and right to moiety is the half-share which any of the spouses has to the common assets of the couple or to the community properties; (P) "personal representative" includes a natural guardian, a guardian appointed by the court and a guardian appointed by parties;

(q) "person under disability" means a person declared by law or by the court as being incapable of managing his assets and includes a minor, insane person, a deaf and dumb and an absent person;

(r) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules;

(s) "prodigal" means a person who is major in age but is a habitual spendthrift or has extravagant habits and is adjudged by a court as being incapable of managing his assets;

(t) "renunciation or repudiation of heirship" means the relinquishment of the inheritance made by a person entitled to inherit by succession and to succeed;

(u) "right of accretion" means the right of the heirs or legatees to add to their shares in the inheritance, the share of any co-heir or legatee; e (v) "right of representation" means the right conferred by law upon certain relatives of a deceased person to succeed to all rights to which such a person would have succeeded, if alive;

(w) "sortition" means the adjudication of the lots or the shares to the interested parties by draw of lots;

(x) "Special head of the family" means the head of the family restricted to certain assets of inheritance, such as the donee who brings the gifted assets into the mass of the inheritance and the co-heirs in lawful possession of certain assets of the inheritance prior to the opening of succession;

(y) "Special Notary" means a Notary with special powers to draw, authentic documents such as (a) wills, (b) record of printed open wills(c) instruments of consent to the will by the spouse of the testator,(d) instruments of renunciation of inheritance, (e) record of approval of the closed wills, (f) ante nuptial agreements, (g) deeds of declaration of heirship, (h) adoption deeds and (i) such other acts which the Special Notary is authorized to perform by law;

(z) "to make a record" or "to draw a record" means to draw up a written account 1[either electronic or manual including online procedure] of an act or a series of acts under authority of law by the Special Notary and designed to furnish permanent authentic evidence of the matters to which it relates;

(za) "unknown heir" means a heir whose identity is not known. PART II SUCCESSION CHAPTER I Preliminary Provisions

Section 2, The Goa Succession, Special Notaries and Inventory Proceeding Act, 2012 (Act 23 of 2016).