There are many instances when the head of the family gets departed and his/her heirs don’t know the procedure to get a legal heir certificate. This article is a one-stop solution for them. All the detailed instructions and requirements for obtaining a legal heir certificate are given here. But, before that, there are some concepts and notions related to the legal heir certificate, which must get cleared. Many people confuse legal heir certificate with a succession certificate but we can assure that after reading this article, the difference will be cleared.
Difference between legal heir certificate and succession certificate
The key differences are as follows:
- Tahsildar from a particular taluka/area issues legal heir certificate whereas succession certificate gets issued by a civil court or sometimes by a high court.
- Son /daughter, brother/sister, husband/wife or parents of the deceased can apply for the legal heir certificate. In case of succession certificate, only immediate legal heir of the deceased can apply.
- Issuance of a legal heir certificate is very cheap whereas obtaining a succession certificate is expensive.
- In case of a legal heir certificate application, no one can contest but anybody can contest a succession certificate application within 45 days from the time of submission of the application form.
Advantages of acquiring a legal heir certificate
The legal heir certificate can be used for claiming insurance policy, provident funds, gratuity, and retirement benefit claims of the departed individual. Now, there is something worth noting that a succession certificate comes in handy for transfer or possession of the property whereas legal heir certificate is not acceptable in the case of property transfer. Apart from this, there is also an important thing to know that, it can be obtained online nowadays and at MyAdvo, you can get the legal heir certificate in a quickest and simplest procedure.
Documents required for obtaining a legal heir certificate
- Signed application form
- Applicant’s identity proof and address proof (Aadhar card or Ration card)
- Deceased individual’s death certificate
- Date of Birth proofs of all legal heir’s school transfer/leaving certificate, PAN card Passport)
- A self-undertaking affidavit
- Deceased individual’s address proof (Aadhar card or Ration card)
Procedure for acquiring a legal heir certificate
The applicant after filling the application form with relevant documents and details must submit it to taluka’s or area’s Tahsildar office or district civil court of that area. After submitting the same, an enquiry will take place by local revenue officers or village administrative officials for the verification.
Usually, a statement from administrative or government employee who was known to the dead person gets registered in the application form. At the end of the verification, the report will be submitted by the officials in the application form.
After the due process, the certificate will be issued by higher authority depending on the report presented by revenue officials or village administrative officials where the names of all legal heirs will be mentioned. This whole process of issuing the certificate takes around 15-30 days. In case the certificate is not issued within a considerable amount of time then the applicant can contact Tahsildar and if that doesn’t yield any result then that person can contact the concerned RDO/Sub-collector.