New Delhi, Dec. 23 -- Among the flurry of bills passed by India's Parliament during its Winter Session, one of them repealed 71 Acts in a single swoop, many cobwebbed and dusty, dating back to the British Raj.

The aptly named Repealing and Amending Bill of 2025 also amended four laws, including the Indian Succession Act of 1925.

This law required court validation of wills made by Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and Parsis within the civil jurisdiction of the Bombay, Calcutta and Madras high courts; the same applied to followers of these faiths with wills registered elsewhere but with references to immovable property in these jurisdictions.

The scrapping of this requirement is welcome, given how cumbersome and expensive the probate proc...