In the Estate of Milind Bedake [2015] ACTSC 267

Generally, the laws which you must abide by, or which dictate your affairs are the laws of the place where you live, your domicile.

There is a presumption that everyone has a domicile and (generalising even further), unless you are a child, it will be the domicile of your choice.

But there are situations where a person’s location may change without it being their choice, and this case is an example of that.

Milind Bedake was living in ACT when he suffered a serious injury that left him with permanent cognitive impairment. He was moved to India where his father could take care of him.

Several years later, Milind died without a Will. The question arose, what was to happen to his estate in the ACT. What laws applied? This all depended on where his domicile was at the date of his death.