11. An application of an executor or of an administrator with will annexed shall be accompanied by an affidavit made by such applicant exhibiting the will required to be proved and such will shall be annexed to the affidavit and marked by the applicant and the person before whom the affidavit is sworn. Such affidavit shall be in Form 2 or Form 3 of Appendix A as the case may be.
12.-(1) On receiving an application for probate or for administration with will annexed the probate registrar shall inspect the will, and see whether it appears to be signed by the testator, or by some other person in his presence, and by his direction, and to be subscribed by two witnesses according to the enactments relative thereto, and shall not proceed further if the will does not appear to be so signed and subscribed.
(2) If the will appears to be so signed and subscribed, the probate registrar shall then refer to the attestation clause (if any), and consider whether the wording thereof states the will to have been, in fact, executed in accordance with those enactments.
13. If there is no attestation clause, or if the attestation clause is insufficient, the probate registrar shall require an affidavit from at least one of the subscribing witnesses, if either of them is living, to prove that the will was, in fact, executed in accordance with those enactments. The affidavit shall be carefully typed and form part of the probate, so that the probate may be a complete document on the face of it.
14. If on perusal of the affidavit it appears that the will was not, in fact, executed in accordance with those enactments, the probate registrar shall refuse probate.
15. If both the subscribing witnesses are dead, or if from other circumstances such an affidavit cannot be obtained from either of them, resort for such an affidavit shall be had to other persons (if any) present at the execution of the will ; but if no such affidavit can be obtained, proof shall be required of that fact, and of the handwriting of the deceased and of the subscribing witnesses, and also of any circumstances raising a presumption in favour of the due execution of the will.
16. Where the testator was blind or illiterate, the probate registrar shall not grant probate of the will, or administration with the will annexed, unless the probate registrar is first satisfied, by proof of what appears on the face of the will was read over to the deceased before its execution, or that he had at that time knowledge of its contents.
17. The probate registrar, on being satisfied that the will was duly executed, shall carefully inspect it to see whether there are any interlineations or alterations, or erasures, or obliterations appearing in it, and requiring to be accounted for. Interlineations, alterations, erasures, and obliterations are invalid unless they existed in the will at the time of its execution, or unless, if made afterwards, they have been executed and attested in the mode required by the said enactments, or unless they have been made valid by the re-execution of the will, or by the subsequent execution of some codicil thereto. Where interlineations, alterations, erasures, or obliterations appear in the will (unless duly executed or recited in or otherwise identified by the attestation clause) an affidavit in proof of their having existed in the will before its execution shall be filed. If no satisfactory evidence is adduced respecting the time when an erasure or obliteration was made, and the words erased or obliterated are not entirely effaced, and can, on inspection of the will, be ascertained, they shall form part of the probate. Where any words have been erased which might have been of importance, an affidavit shall be required.
18.-(1) Where a will contains a reference to any document of such a nature as to raise a question whether it ought or ought not to form a constituent part of the will, the probate registrar shall require the production of the document, with a view to ascertaining whether or not it is entitled to probate ; and if it is not produced, a satisfactory account of its non-production shall be proved. A document cannot form part of a will unless it was in existence at the time when the will was executed.
(2) If there are vestiges of sealing wax or wafers, or other marks on the will, leading to the inference that some document has been at some time annexed or attached thereto, a satisfactory account of them shall be proved, and the production of the document shall be required, and if it is not produced, a satisfactory account of its non-production shall be proved.