Orissa HC upholds order granting succession certificate to kin of deceased police officer
CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has upheld an order of the Civil Judge (Senior Division), Athagarh granting a succession certificate to the mother and daughter of deceased police officer Kamal Lochan Badajena, while dismissing an appeal filed by one Philisita Kujur, who claimed to be the officer’s widow.
The single judge bench of Justice SK Panigrahi gave the ruling on an appeal that challenged the Civil Judge’s order dated November 19, 2016, passed in an intestate succession case concerning Badajena, an assistant sub-inspector of police posted at Balasore, who died on June 15, 2009.
The petition for succession certificate had originally been filed by Manasi Badajena, claiming to be the deceased’s daughter, and Sukur Dei, his mother. They asserted that Badajena was married to Sabita Badajena, who died in 1996, and that Manasi was the only child from that marriage. They accused the appellant, Philisita Kujur, of impersonating Sabita in order to obtain a fraudulent legal heir certificate in 2010, which was later cancelled following official verification.
Kujur, however, claimed that she was in fact Sabita Badajena, also known as Sridevi and had lived with the deceased as his legally wedded wife since 1988. She further asserted that the couple had adopted Manasi, whose marriage they allegedly performed, and that she was later driven out of the deceased’s household.
The court instead granted the succession certificate to the deceased’s undisputed heirs while directing them to execute an indemnity bond to safeguard the appellant’s claimed interests pending adjudication before an appropriate civil court.
Finding no illegality, perversity or non-consideration of material evidence in the Athagarh court’s approach, the high court dismissed the appeal, allowing the succession certificate in favour of the deceased ASI’s daughter and mother to stand.