Legal Heir / Succession Certificate in Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Family Member Certificate)

Legal Heir / Succession Certificate in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands runs on two separate tracks, and islanders regularly lose weeks by starting on the wrong one. The Andaman and Nicobar Administration issues a Family Member Certificate; its own service page calls it the "Certificate For Surviving Family Members Of Deceased Person"; through the concerned Tehsildar. Anything that involves collecting the deceased's money, such as bank balances, fixed deposits or shares above what a bank will settle informally, needs a succession certificate from the District Court at Port Blair under the Indian Succession Act, 1925.

Which department issues the legal heir certificate in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands?

The Revenue Department of the Andaman and Nicobar Administration issues it, and the signing authority is the concerned Tehsildar. In South Andaman district the tehsil offices are at Port Blair, Ferrargunj and Little Andaman; North and Middle Andaman and Nicobar districts have their own tehsils covering their island groups.

Applications reach the Tehsildar through the Administration's e-District portal, and the district service pages are explicit about the channel: "Through e-forms via csc/e-corner/internet". That phrasing matters in a territory spread across hundreds of kilometres of sea. A family in Diglipur or Campbell Bay is not expected to travel to a tehsil counter to lodge a form; the Common Service Centre and the e-corner are the intended front office, and a household with its own internet connection can file directly.

The Andaman and Nicobar Administration lists a second, related service on the same district portal. The Dependent Certificate, which asks for ID proof, ration card, a family declaration affidavit and a self declaration. The two are not interchangeable. The Family Member Certificate answers "who survived the deceased"; the Dependent Certificate answers "who was financially dependent on this person", which is a narrower question and is used mainly for employment and welfare claims.

Who can and cannot apply for a Family Member Certificate?

You can apply if you are a surviving family member of a deceased person who was resident in the islands; spouse, son, daughter, mother or father in the ordinary case. The application has to carry ID proof for all family members, not only for the applicant, because the Tehsildar is certifying the composition of the whole surviving family rather than the standing of one person.

You can apply for a minor by signing as guardian, with the minor named in the affidavit alongside the adults. Islanders holding a Local Certificate or an Islander card will find those accepted as identity and residence documents; Aadhaar is equally acceptable.

You cannot apply if you are not a family member of the deceased. A creditor, a landlord, an employer or a business partner has no standing to seek this certificate, however genuine their claim on the estate. You cannot use a Family Member Certificate to force a bank or a company registrar to release a substantial holding, those institutions may lawfully insist on a court succession certificate, and the Tehsildar's certificate does not displace that requirement. You also cannot use this route where the deceased left a valid will, because a will is proved by probate or letters of administration in the District Court, not certified by a Tehsildar.

What documents does the Tehsildar ask for?

The South Andaman district administration publishes a short and specific list for the Family Member Certificate:

• ID Proof for all family members
• Ration Card
• Affidavit signed by the applicant
• Death Certificate

The ration card is the quiet centre of that list. It is the document the Tehsildar uses to test the affidavit, because it independently records who lived in the household. An affidavit naming four survivors against a ration card showing six triggers questions, and a ration card that was never updated after a marriage or a birth is one of the commonest reasons an islands file stalls.

The Dependent Certificate list is different: ID proof, ration card, a family declaration affidavit and a self declaration, and does not require the death certificate in the same way, which is a useful signal of what each certificate is actually for.

What is the fee, and how long does it take?

The Andaman and Nicobar Administration does not publish a government fee or a service-delivery timeline for the Family Member Certificate or the Dependent Certificate on the district service pages. That is a genuine gap in the published record rather than a suggestion that the service is free.

Practically, this means two things. First, ask at the Common Service Centre or e-corner what the government fee is and what the centre's own service charge is, and insist on a printed receipt for each. A CSC service charge is legitimate; an unreceipted cash payment is not. Second, ask the operator to note the service standard from the e-District system when the application is submitted, so you have a date to hold the office to.

The court route is different again. A succession certificate carries an ad-valorem court fee on the value of the debts and securities under Schedule I of the Court Fees Act, 1870, which scales with the size of the estate rather than being a flat charge.

How to apply for the Family Member Certificate in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands

1. Register the death with the local registrar of births and deaths and obtain the death certificate. Nothing in this process can start without it.
2. Collect ID proof for every surviving family member you intend to name — Islander card, Aadhaar or voter ID, and check that the ration card is current. Update the ration card first if it does not reflect the family as it stands today.
3. Prepare the affidavit, naming each surviving family member with age and relationship to the deceased, and sign it as the applicant. Omitting an heir, including a married daughter or a mother of the deceased, is the mistake that most often unravels later.
4. Go to a Common Service Centre or e-corner, or open the e-District portal at edistrict.andamannicobar.gov.in yourself, and file the Family Member Certificate e-form, uploading the four enclosures.
5. Pay the counter charge, take the printed acknowledgement with the application reference number, and confirm which Tehsildar office the file has been routed to: Port Blair, Ferrargunj, Little Andaman or the tehsil for your island group.
6. Track the application by its reference number on the e-District portal, and collect the certificate from the Tehsildar's office or download it once the file is approved.

How to get a succession certificate at the District Court, Port Blair

1. Ask the bank, company or registrar in writing what it requires. Many institutions settle modest balances on a nomination, an indemnity bond and a Family Member Certificate, and going to court unnecessarily is expensive.
2. File a petition under Part X of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 in the District Court at Port Blair, listing each debt and security separately and naming every heir as a party.
3. Pay the ad-valorem court fee on the value of the debts and securities claimed.
4. Wait through the citation period. The court publishes a general citation inviting objections, and cannot grant the certificate before that statutory period runs out.
5. Collect the certificate and present it to the institution. It authorises collection only of the items listed in it, so an account left off the petition is not covered by the order.

How do I check the status of my application?

Use the application reference number from the e-District acknowledgement on the portal's track-application option, or ask the CSC or e-corner operator who filed it to check the status on the same system. The concerned Tehsildar's office, Port Blair on 03192-231352 in South Andaman: can tell you which desk the file is sitting on.

Court petitions are tracked separately through the case number your advocate receives at filing, not through the e-District portal.

Why do applications get rejected in the islands?

Mismatch between the affidavit and the ration card is the leading cause, and it is almost always because the ration card was never updated. Missing ID proof for one of the named family members is the second, since the checklist asks for ID for all family members and applicants routinely upload their own only.

Names spelt differently across the death certificate, the ration card and the affidavit cause returns that are tedious to fix afterwards. A death certificate that has not yet been registered; common where a death occurred at home on an outer island and registration was delayed; stops the file entirely until registration is completed.

Finally, families applying for the Dependent Certificate when they need the Family Member Certificate, or the reverse, lose the full processing period. Read the two service descriptions before filing.

Where do I complain if the certificate is delayed?

Take it first to the concerned Tehsildar, quoting the e-District reference number, then to the Deputy Commissioner of your district, South Andaman, North and Middle Andaman, or Nicobar. The e-District system records the date of submission, which is the fact that makes a delay complaint concrete.

If the office does not respond, file a grievance on the central CPGRAMS portal at pgportal.gov.in against the Andaman and Nicobar Administration, attaching the acknowledgement.

One point worth repeating: the e-District route through a CSC or e-corner is open to every islander directly, the Tehsildar decides the file on the four listed documents, and no private agent has any standing to move it faster. Pay only what you get a receipt for.