Does a will made abroad work for Indian property, and do you need probate?

You do not need to have a fresh will drawn up in India for Indian property. A will validly executed abroad is effective to pass Indian assets, and Indian succession law recognises it. Where the will covers immovable property in the older metro jurisdictions, the specific rules in Section 57 of the Indian Succession Act have historically applied to it, including a will made outside India that relates to such property.

So the starting point is reassuring: the document your relative made abroad is the operative will for the Indian flat, and the estate passes under it. What used to complicate matters was not the will's validity but a separate procedural requirement to have it proved in an Indian court first, and that is exactly what has now changed.

The important update is procedural and recent. Until the end of 2025, the Indian Succession Act required probate or letters of administration before an executor or legatee could establish their right under certain wills, including wills of Hindus covering immovable property in the Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai jurisdictions. The Repealing and Amending Act 2025, which received assent on 20 December 2025, has omitted that requirement.

The effect is that probate is now voluntary, not a mandatory precondition to act on the will. This removes what was often the slowest and most expensive step for an NRI beneficiary, a full probate petition in an Indian court from abroad. If you have read older guidance that says probate is compulsory for a Hindu will covering Mumbai or Chennai property, that guidance is now out of date.

Even though probate is no longer required by the statute, a particular institution, a bank, a share registrar, a housing society, may still ask to see a court grant before it transfers an asset into your name, because their internal rules have not caught up. Where that happens, you do not have to re-prove the whole will from scratch: an Indian court can grant letters of administration on an authenticated copy of the foreign grant (Section 228), which is the lighter, ancillary route.

On tax, inheritance under a will is not a taxable event, it is specifically excluded from tax on receipt under Section 56(2)(x) of the Income-tax Act. Tax only arises later, on the income the assets earn or the capital gain when you sell, where you carry the previous owner's cost and holding period. So the will establishes who gets the asset, and the tax is a separate, later question a practising CA handles.