Despite court order, tahsildars delay legal heir certificates

Despite court order, tahsildars delay legal heir certificates

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:21.11.2021

Despite several orders passed by the Supreme Court and the high court that a tahsildar is empowered to issue not only Class-I legal heir certificate but also Class-II certificates, people approaching tahsildars for the same are made to run from pillar to post.

They continue to reject applications seeking Class-II legal heir certificates citing a government circular. Now, making it clear that the issue is no longer res integra (not examined), the Madras high court has passed yet another order declaring that the government circular dated September 24, 2019 has no statutory force.

Justice R Mahadevan has passed the order while disposing of a plea moved by V S Dorairaj, S Krishnakumari and V S Vijay.

According to the petitioners, their sister's husband Chandrasekaran died on January 10, 2020 and their sister Rajakumari also passed away on August 2. Since the couple died without a child, the petitioners were the surviving legal heirs to succeed the estate of Rajakumari.

Therefore, they submitted an application to Amanjikarai tahsildar seeking to issue Class-II legal heir certificate.

However, the application was rejected on the ground that tahsildar is not empowered to issue Class-II legal heir certificate by virtue of a circular dated September 24, 2019 issued by the revenue department. Aggrieved, they have moved the present plea challenging the rejection order.

When the plea came up for hearing, the court said: “The issue involved in this writ petition is no longer res integra. The question as to whether a tahsildar is empowered to issue a legal heir certificate to a Class-II legal heir is settled by way of several judicial pronouncements.”

All that is required is that the tahsildar has to satisfy himself as to the genuineness of the claim of the applicant who seeks for issuing a Class II legal heir, the court added. The judge then set aside the rejection order and remanded the issue back to the tahsildar for fresh consideration.

“But even after this order, the tahsildar is refusing to issue the certificate. They have informed us that the district collector has to approve issuance of manual certificate,” advocate A P Thiruvadi said to TOI.

In the Aminjikarai tahsildar office, there are 16 such cases. Thousands of people are made to run from pillar to post even after a clear order from the highest court of the state, he added.