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About this tool
Work out whether you need a legal heir certificate, succession certificate or probate, with Class I heir shares and the document list.
A legal heir certificate identifies who survives a deceased person so pension, gratuity, provident fund and utility records can be released — it is not a document of title, and it will not move a bank balance or a shareholding out of an intestate estate. This tool decides which instrument each asset actually needs: a legal heir certificate from the Tahsildar, a succession certificate from the District Judge under sections 370 to 390 of the Indian Succession Act 1925, probate where sections 57 and 213 make it compulsory, or letters of administration. Where the deceased was Hindu and died intestate, it also works out the Class I shares under section 10 or section 15 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956.
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Shows which of the four routes each class of property actually requires, and why.
Applies section 10 for a male intestate and section 15 for a female, which distribute differently.
Applies your state's ad valorem rate and cap to the value of the deposits and securities.
A legal heir certificate is issued by a revenue officer such as the Tahsildar and simply records who the surviving heirs are, which is enough for pension, gratuity, provident fund and utility transfers. A succession certificate is granted by a District Judge under the Indian Succession Act, 1925 and is what transfers debts and securities — bank deposits, shares and bonds — from an intestate estate. Neither one confers title to immovable property.
Section 10 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 divides it among the Class I heirs: all the widows take one share between them, each surviving son, each surviving daughter and the mother take one share each, and the heirs of each pre-deceased child take one share between them. A widow, two sons, a daughter, a surviving mother and one pre-deceased son's branch make six shares, so each takes one-sixth.
No. A nominee receives the money as a trustee for the legal heirs, not as an owner. The Supreme Court settled this for life insurance in Sarbati Devi v. Usha Devi in 1984, and held in Shakti Yezdani v. Jayanand Salgaonkar in 2023 that nomination under the Companies Act does not displace succession law for shares either.
Under sections 57 and 213 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, probate is compulsory for a Will made by a Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh or Jain within the areas that were the ordinary original civil jurisdiction of the Calcutta, Madras and Bombay High Courts, or where the Will covers immovable property in those areas. Elsewhere it is optional, though sub-registrars and banks frequently ask for it anyway.