Legal Heir / Succession Certificate in Bihar (Vanshavali)

Legal heir status in Bihar is not established by a single certificate the way it is in the southern states. Bihar splits the job across two offices. The vanshavali, the written family genealogy naming every surviving heir, is prepared at the Gram Panchayat level, and the Circle Officer of the anchal then acts on it when the inheritance is recorded in the jamabandi through dakhil-kharij on the Bihar Bhumi portal at biharbhumi.bihar.gov.in.

This surprises families who expect the state's RTPS portal to carry an heirship service. It does not. The Bihar RTPS ServicePlus portal at serviceonline.bihar.gov.in lists residential, caste, income, non-creamy layer, EWS, birth and death and character certificates. There is no legal heir certificate on that list, and anyone who tells you it can be downloaded from RTPS is describing a service that does not exist there.

What document proves heirship in Bihar?

The vanshavali is the working heirship document in Bihar. It sets out the family tree of the deceased generation by generation, names every descendant and surviving heir, and states each person's relationship. It is prepared at the Gram Panchayat level, attested locally, and then used by the revenue machinery as the starting statement of who is entitled to a share.

Bihar leans on the vanshavali far more heavily than most states, because the state's land record and survey work is organised around establishing who descends from the recorded raiyat. When a family cannot produce a coherent vanshavali, the inheritance mutation stalls, no matter how clear the death certificate is.

Alongside the vanshavali, most files carry a notarised affidavit on stamp paper listing every surviving heir with age and relationship. Employers, pension branches and provident fund offices in Bihar generally accept the vanshavali and affidavit together, supported by the death certificate, as proof of heirship for releasing family pension, gratuity, leave encashment and group insurance dues.

What is the difference between a legal heir record and a succession certificate?

This distinction decides which office you walk into, and getting it wrong costs a Bihar family weeks.

The heirship record, the vanshavali plus the Circle Officer's finding in the mutation case: is administrative. It is inexpensive, it is prepared locally, and it is enough for state government dues, employer settlements, pension branches, small bank balances and the revenue record.

A succession certificate is a judicial order under Sections 370 to 390 of the Indian Succession Act 1925, granted by the District Judge having jurisdiction. It authorises the holder to collect the debts and securities of the deceased, which in practice means bank deposits, fixed deposits, shares, debentures, bonds and mutual fund units. It costs far more, because the court fee is charged ad valorem as a percentage of the value of the assets listed, and it takes months rather than weeks because the court must publish a citation inviting objections before granting it.

One limit is widely misunderstood in Bihar. A succession certificate covers movable assets and debts. It does not transfer land. Agricultural land and houses pass by inheritance dakhil-kharij in the revenue record, and where the title itself is disputed, by a civil suit for declaration or partition.

The practical rule is this. For a pension file, a provident fund claim or a jamabandi transfer, work the vanshavali and dakhil-kharij route. For a bank refusing to release a large deposit or a demat account, expect to be sent to the District Judge.

Who can and cannot apply in Bihar?

Any surviving heir of the deceased can start the process. Under the Hindu Succession Act 1956 that means the spouse, sons, daughters and mother as Class I heirs, with the applicable personal law deciding the position for Muslim, Christian and Parsi families in Bihar. A minor heir acts through a natural guardian. Where several heirs exist, one heir usually files and names all the others, and every one of them must appear in the vanshavali.

You cannot apply if you are not an heir under the personal law that governs the family. A cousin, a neighbour, a bataidar cultivating the land, a business partner or a creditor of the deceased is not eligible, however real their interest in the estate. An applicant who cannot show that the deceased resided in that anchal, or that the land lies there, is not eligible in that Circle Office and must file where jurisdiction lies. A person who needs authority to collect large bank deposits or securities is not eligible for that purpose through the revenue route at all and must petition the District Judge.

Bihar applies no income limit, no caste criterion and no separate domicile test to heirship. Residence and the location of the land decide only which Circle Office hears the file.

What documents are required?

The death certificate is the foundation. It is issued by the Registrar of Births and Deaths of the Gram Panchayat, Nagar Parishad or Nagar Nigam where the death was registered, and it can be applied for free on the RTPS portal at serviceonline.bihar.gov.in, which delivers certificates digitally by SMS link, email, DigiLocker or the ServicePlus inbox.

Beyond it, assemble the vanshavali, a notarised affidavit listing every surviving heir with age and relationship, the applicant heir's Aadhaar, identity proof of the deceased, and a residence proof tying the deceased to that anchal. Add the details of the existing jamabandi where the purpose is dakhil-kharij, the other heirs' no-objection where one heir is acting for all, and the deceased's service or pension records where the claim is against an employer.

How to get heirship recorded in Bihar

1. Register the death and collect the death certificate. Apply free on serviceonline.bihar.gov.in or at the Gram Panchayat, Nagar Parishad or Nagar Nigam registrar. Take five or six copies; every later office keeps one.
2. Get the vanshavali prepared at the Gram Panchayat. Set out the family tree of the deceased generation by generation, name every surviving heir, and have it attested at the panchayat level. Do this before anything else, because both the bank and the Circle Office will ask for it.
3. Swear the heir affidavit. Draft it on stamp paper naming each surviving heir with age and relationship, get it notarised, and collect written no-objection from any heir not applying jointly.
4. File the dakhil-kharij application on Bihar Bhumi. Open biharbhumi.bihar.gov.in, create a citizen login with your mobile number, and file the mutation application with the death certificate, the vanshavali, the affidavit and the existing jamabandi details attached. You can equally file at the Circle Office counter or through an RTPS or Vasudha Kendra.
5. Watch the defect check list. Bihar Bhumi shows a defect list when the Revenue Officer returns an application. Correct exactly what it names and resubmit, rather than filing a fresh case.
6. Let the objection window run. Bihar Bhumi allows an affected party to file an objection against a mutation case online. If nobody objects, the Circle Officer passes the mutation order and the jamabandi is corrected to the heirs' names.
7. Download the corrected jamabandi and the online rasid. Once the mutation is through, the land receipt and the LPC issue in the heirs' names, which is the practical proof that the transfer is complete.

How do I check the status of a Bihar mutation case?

Log in to biharbhumi.bihar.gov.in with the same mobile-based citizen login used to file, and open the dakhil-kharij status view with the case number generated at filing. The portal shows the stage the case has reached, whether the Revenue Officer has raised a defect, and whether any objection has been filed against it. For RTPS-issued supporting certificates, the ServicePlus inbox and the SMS link carry the application status separately.

If the file has stopped moving, escalate within the revenue hierarchy — from the Circle Officer to the Sub Divisional Officer, and then to the District Magistrate, who heads revenue administration in the district. Carry the case number, the receipt and a copy of the vanshavali; every escalation asks for all three.

How do I get a succession certificate from the District Court?

1. Engage a lawyer and file a petition before the District Judge of the district where the deceased ordinarily resided or where the assets are held, setting out the death, the relationship, the full list of heirs and a schedule of the debts and securities claimed.
2. Attach the death certificate, the vanshavali and proof of relationship, plus documentary proof of every asset, the bank passbook, the fixed deposit receipt, the demat statement or the share certificate.
3. Pay the ad valorem court fee, calculated as a percentage of the value of the assets listed under the court-fee schedule applicable in Bihar. Ask the court's copying agency or your counsel for the exact figure for your value slab before filing; it is the largest single cost in the process.
4. Wait for the citation. The court publishes a notice inviting objections from anyone claiming an interest. If nobody objects within the period allowed, the certificate is granted; if an objection is filed, the matter is heard on evidence.
5. Collect the certified copy and lodge it with the bank, company or depository holding the asset. District court case status in Bihar can be tracked through the eCourts services using the case number issued at filing.

Why do heirship files stall in Bihar?

• An incomplete vanshavali. Leaving out a married daughter, the children of a predeceased son or a second wife's children is the commonest defect, and in Bihar it surfaces as an online objection on the mutation case.
• No traceable jamabandi. The deceased's name not appearing in the jamabandi panji, or appearing differently from the death certificate, halts the dakhil-kharij before it starts.
• Wrong anchal. Filing in the Circle Office where the heirs live rather than where the deceased resided and the land lies.
• Ignoring the defect check list. Bihar Bhumi names the exact defect when a Revenue Officer returns a file; refiling a fresh application instead of curing the defect simply restarts the queue.
• An unnotarised affidavit, or one that does not state each heir's age and relationship.
• A dispute among the heirs, at which point the Circle Officer declines to pass the mutation and the family is left to the civil court.
• Asking the revenue route to do a court's job, seeking authority over large bank deposits or securities from the Circle Officer rather than the District Judge.

What does it cost, and where do I complain?

Pay only the government's own charges. In Bihar those are the stamp paper and notary fee for the heir affidavit, the court fee stamp on the application, the mutation charge on the dakhil-kharij, and the notified counter charge at a Vasudha Kendra or CSC if a kiosk files for you. The supporting RTPS certificates are issued free online, and jamabandi searches on Bihar Bhumi cost nothing.

Agents sitting outside anchal offices across Bihar routinely quote a few thousand rupees to "get the dakhil-kharij passed". That is money for a file any heir can submit personally on biharbhumi.bihar.gov.in, and paying it does not move the case ahead of anyone else's in the Circle Officer's queue. The correct response to a demand for money is to escalate to the Sub Divisional Officer and the District Magistrate with the case number in hand. For RTPS problems, the state publishes a helpdesk email address on serviceonline.bihar.gov.in.