What is a conditional or contingent Will?

What is a conditional / contingent Will?

A conditional or contingent Will is one which depends for its operation upon the happening of a specified condition or contingency. If the condition fails, the Will is inoperative and void thereafter. If a Will is conditional only, it will be null on the contingency not happening even though the testator subsequently refers to it as his Will and though after his death it be found in his writing desk. In fact, such a Will can also be revoked either by implication or by express words. Whether or not a Will is to be regarded as contingent depends upon the intention of the testator. Courts will regard a Will as conditional or contingent unless the intention of the testator to make it so clearly appears either expressly or by necessary implication from the language of the Will as a whole. A Will is not conditional by statements therein which have no reasonable or logical relation to the testator's property or to the objects of his bounty. A statement in the Will of circumstances which merely indicate the necessity or serve as occasion or inducement for making the Will will not render it contingent. where it is doubtful whether the Will is contingent upon the occurrence of an event the circumstances under which the Will was executed, or the language of the instrument may be considered. A Willis an ambulatory document and so operative only upon the property which exists at the time of the testator's death. Alienation of a part of the property covered by the Willis not indicative of revocation thereof. A Will, in so far as it involved real property, did not operate to pass land subsequently acquired.   [Sridevi Amma and others v. Venkita Parasurama Ayyan and others AIR 1960 Kerala 1 (FB)] (Koshi CJ, M S Menon and Varadaraja Iyengar Jj)