CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has ruled that legal heir certificates can be issued to adopted children even without the adoption deed if the other proofs to substantiate the claim are available.
The ruling was given by Justice N Anand Venkatesh recently while directing the authorities concerned to issue a legal heir certificate to a woman – C Nithya, an adopted daughter – whose application for it was rejected on the grounds of lack of adequate substantiating documents.
The petitioner had applied for the legal heir certificate following the death of her adopted parents – P Radhakrishnan and Saroja – but the application was rejected by Velachery tahsildar on July 21, 2025, on the grounds that adequate documents were not produced. Challenging the rejection order, she approached the high court. “Even though the petitioner does not have an adoption deed, there are other documents that have been produced before this court which shows that the petitioner has always recognised Radhakrishnan and Saroja as her adoptive parents. Therefore, the tahsildar could have called the petitioner for an enquiry and directed the petitioner to submit the relevant documents,” the judge observed.
He directed the petitioner to submit an online application to the tahsildar along with the relevant documents and on receipt of the same, he (tahsildar) shall call her for an enquiry and receive the affidavit from her with all relevant documents.
“On enquiry, if it is substantiated that the petitioner is the adopted daughter of Radhakrishnan and Saroja, the legal heirship certificate shall be issued. This process shall be completed within a period of six weeks,” the judge ordered.
Advocate S P Chokkalingam, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that she had applied for legal heir certificate following the death of her adopted parents Radhakrishnan in 2021 and Saroja in 2022. The tahsildar rejected the online application solely on the grounds that the adoption deed was not produced. He did not look into the other documents, which are enough to prove her relationship, the counsel submitted.