What must an applicant prove if a will is lost?

When an applicant is seeking to prove a lost will, the essential requirement is to demonstrate the contents of the will and evidence that it was duly executed. This is crucial because the court needs to ascertain what the will contained and confirm that it met legal standards when it was created, including witnessing and signing procedures.

To establish the contents of the lost will, the applicant typically must provide testimony from individuals who saw the will or can recall its provisions. Moreover, they must show that the will was executed in accordance with applicable laws, which often means demonstrating that there were proper witnesses present at the time of signing the will by the testator.

While registration of a will or testimonies from witnesses can play a role in the overall context of proving a will, they are not necessary prerequisites to establishing the lost will. Similarly, the existence of previous versions of the will is not required unless those versions are directly relevant to the interpretation of the lost will. The focus remains on what the lost will contained and the formalities followed to create it.