Heir certificate cannot be denied to widow: HC

The Madras High Court today said that heir certificate could not be denied to a widow on the ground that she was not direct heir of her mother-in-law.
Justice R.Subbiah of the Court's Madurai bench said the "petitioner S.Shanthi did not have her father-in-law when she was married in 2007. Hence her husband Soundarapandian, her brother-in-law Senthur Pandian and her mother-in-law Murugmmal were declared as heirs by a certificate."
While Senthur Pandian died in 2008, her husband died in 2012 and her mother-in-law the next year.
After the death of her mother-in-law, she applied for heir certificate but the Madurai North Tahsildhar rejected her plea on the ground that she was not the direct heir of her mother-in-law and she should get her heir certificate only through the Court.

The judge said that as per the revenue department manual, the heir certificate could be rejected and the applicant could be asked to get the certificate only through court on four grounds such as when the deceased had more than one spouse and the applicant is not a resident in the taluk and did not appear for inquiry and when the deceased did not have any child.
In this case, the woman is the heir of the family and the revenue department would have to confirm it through an inquiry by village administrative officer (VAO) and revenue inspector (RI), the judge said.

The judge directed the Tahsildhar (Madurai north) to get the report from VAO and RI by affording opportunity to the petitioner and other necessary parties and issue heir certificate based on merit within three weeks.