CHENNAI: In a bid to do away with the confusion regarding Class I and Class II heirs, the State government has issued a Government Order (GO) and fresh guidelines for issuing legal heir certificates.
This was done after the Madras High Court issued detailed orders on June 17 and August 12 on a batch of petitions pertaining to legal heir certificates. Currently, Class II heirs are not entitled to the legal heir certificate from the tahsildar, which has been challenged in court.
A top official said the classification of legal heirs has created confusion. Under the new guidelines, a legal heir certificate can be issued as a common document applicable to everyone without any difference based on religion or gender.
The TN e-governance agency is to make corrections in the online portal software to enable people to avail of online services as per the new guidelines or procedures to be issued by the government soon. The GO says legal heir certificates may be issued to any family members of the deceased and should be issued by including only the family members of the deceased.
The legal heir certificate of the deceased (in case of a married person) will only include the following members: father, mother, spouse, sons, and daughters. In case the deceased is unmarried, the legal heir certificate will include the father, mother, brothers, and sisters.
To prove the relationship of legal heirs with the deceased, a marriage registration certificate, passport, voter ID, Aadhaar card, community certificate, driving licence, birth certificate of all children, transfer certificate of all children, or any other similar document should be furnished.
In case no adult legal heir is alive, a minor legal heir may apply through his/her guardian or through the brothers/sisters of the deceased. In case it is an adopted child, the tahsildar should issue the legal heir certificate after confirming that the individual has been legally adopted.
Under the new guidelines, all applications for legal heir certificates are to be made online and will be routed to the village administrative officer or revenue inspector for verification after which they will be sent to the tahsildar within a week. The Tahsildar will issue the certificate within a week after getting the report from the revenue inspector. Applicants can download the certificate on receipt of an SMS.
The tahsildar or independent deputy tahsildar has been mandated not to impose any restrictive conditions while issuing legal heir certificates. This would mean the conditions on the validity of certificate for six months or certain time limit or its invalidity in civil court put forth by the tahsildar would now cease to exist.
In case the legal heir certificate has been obtained furnishing false information or suppression of material facts, it will be cancelled by the authority. Similarly, the GO vests the power of revision of life certificate with the district revenue officer and revision petitions have to be filed within three years from the date of passing the appeal order. Earlier, the power of revision was with the district Collector.
Factfile