Legal Heir / Succession Certificate in Chhattisgarh

Legal heir proof in Chhattisgarh works differently from the way most families expect, and the first thing to understand is that there is no button on the state portal labelled "legal heir certificate".

Chhattisgarh's e-District portal at edistrict.cgstate.gov.in publishes an instruction page for every service it carries. Those pages cover birth registration, death registration, marriage registration, income certificate, SC/ST certificate, OBC certificate, residence certificate, the mool nivasi (native) certificate, ration cards, building permission, learner driving licences, RTI, public grievances and the state's pension schemes. A separately named heirship certificate is not among them. Anyone who tells you it can simply be downloaded from CG e-District is describing a service that does not exist there.

What Chhattisgarh does instead is run heirship through the Tehsildar sitting as a revenue court, and deliver the resulting order through the portal's Court Order Certificate (Revenue Court) service, listed at ₹30 with a stated 15-day response period.

What actually proves heirship in Chhattisgarh?

Three documents do the work between them, and which one you need depends entirely on who is asking.

The death certificate is the foundation of every file. Chhattisgarh made birth and death registration completely free from 5 November 2014, including late registration and search fees, and the e-District birth service page records a seven-working-day disposal standard under the state's public service guarantee. Death registration is listed with a 15-day response period, and it can only be done in the jurisdiction where the death occurred.

The heir affidavit is the working instrument for most claims. Sworn on stamp paper and notarised, it names every surviving heir with age and relationship and declares that nobody has been left out. Employers, pension branches, provident fund offices and small bank accounts in Chhattisgarh will usually settle on the death certificate plus this affidavit, with a ration card or Aadhaar showing the family together.

The Tehsildar's revenue-court order is what you escalate to when the affidavit is not accepted, or when land has to move into the heirs' names. It is a finding on the record about who the heirs are, and it is the document the portal's Court Order Certificate (Revenue Court) service exists to deliver.

What is the difference between the revenue route and a succession certificate?

Getting this wrong is the single most expensive mistake a Chhattisgarh family makes, because the two routes run in different buildings at very different prices.

The revenue route is administrative. It runs through the tehsil office, it costs ₹30 or nothing at all, the portal's stated response window is 15 days, and it settles heirship for state government dues, employer settlements, family pension, provident fund, gratuity, small bank balances and the land record.

A succession certificate is judicial. It is granted by the District Judge under Sections 370 to 390 of the Indian Succession Act 1925, it authorises the holder to collect the debts and securities of the deceased, and its cost is an ad valorem court fee charged as a percentage of the value of the assets listed. It takes months rather than weeks, because the court must publish a citation inviting objections before granting it.

The limit that catches people out is this: a succession certificate covers movable assets and debts, not land. Bank deposits, fixed deposits, shares, debentures, bonds and mutual fund units fall inside it. Agricultural land and houses do not, those pass by mutation in the revenue record on the Tehsildar's order.

The rule of thumb: for a pension file, a PF claim or a land mutation, work the tehsil. 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?

Any surviving heir under the personal law governing the family can apply. Under the Hindu Succession Act 1956 that means the spouse, sons, daughters and mother as Class I heirs. Muslim, Christian and Parsi families in Chhattisgarh are governed by their own succession law. A minor heir acts through a natural guardian, and where several heirs exist, one usually files and names all the others.

You cannot apply if you are not an heir under that personal law. A cousin, a neighbour, a tenant cultivating the land, a business partner or a creditor of the deceased is not eligible, however genuine their claim on the estate. A creditor's route is a civil suit, not the tehsil.

An applicant who cannot show that the deceased ordinarily resided in that tehsil, or that the land lies there, is not eligible in that 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.

Chhattisgarh applies no income limit, no caste criterion and no separate domicile test to heirship. Residence and the location of the land decide only which tehsil hears the file. Note that the state's own mool nivasi certificate has its own separate 15-year residence test, that test belongs to the native certificate, not to heirship, and the two are often confused.

How to get a legal heir record in Chhattisgarh

1. Register the death and collect the death certificate. Apply at the registrar of the municipality, nagar panchayat or gram panchayat where the death occurred, or through CG e-District. Registration is free in Chhattisgarh. Take five or six copies, every later office keeps one.
2. Prepare the heir affidavit. Draft it on stamp paper naming every surviving heir with age and relationship, get it notarised, and collect written no-objection from any heir not applying jointly. Do this before approaching the bank or the tehsil, because both will ask for it.
3. Try the affidavit route first. Present the death certificate, the affidavit and a ration card or Aadhaar showing the family together to the employer, pension branch or bank. Many Chhattisgarh claims close here without ever reaching the tehsil.
4. File at the tehsil where the affidavit is refused. Apply to the Tehsildar with the death certificate, the affidavit, identity proof, residence proof for the deceased and, for land cases, the khasra or B-1 extract. You can file at the tehsil counter, at a Lok Seva Kendra in the collectorate or tehsil building, at a CHOiCE centre, or online at edistrict.cgstate.gov.in.
5. Pay only the listed fee. The Court Order Certificate (Revenue Court) service is listed at ₹30 on the e-District portal, and the portal's pattern across services is ₹30 at a Lok Seva Kendra and free when a citizen applies directly. Insist on the receipt.
6. Attend the enquiry. The Tehsildar's office verifies the family through the patwari and the local body, and may call the heirs. Bring the original death certificate and the affidavit.
7. Collect the order and use it for mutation. Once the Tehsildar records the heirs, apply for mutation so the land record and the lagan receipt issue in the heirs' names. That corrected record, not the certificate itself, is the proof that the transfer is complete.

How do I check my application status?

Log in to edistrict.cgstate.gov.in with the same credentials used to file and open the status view with the application number issued at submission. Chhattisgarh's e-District applications generate an acknowledgement at filing, and that number is the only reliable handle on the file — keep the printed receipt from the Lok Seva Kendra, because an operator who files on your behalf holds the login.

Note that the older CG e-District address, cgedistrict.cgstate.gov.in, now redirects permanently to the state's Sewa Setu portal at sewasetu.cgstate.gov.in. If a bookmark or an old printout sends you to a page that has moved, that redirect is why.

If the file has stopped moving, escalate from the Tehsildar to the Sub-Divisional Officer (Revenue) and then to the Collector. The e-District portal's Public Grievance (Collectorate) service, listed at ₹30 with a 30-day response window, is the formal way to put the delay on record. Carry the application number, the fee receipt and a copy of the affidavit; 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 proof. The death certificate, the heir affidavit and proof of relationship, plus documentary evidence 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 on the value of the assets listed under the court-fee schedule applicable in Chhattisgarh. Ask your counsel or the court's copying agency for the exact figure for your value slab before filing; it is by far the largest cost in the process.
4. Wait out the citation. The court publishes a public notice inviting objections. If nobody objects within the period allowed, the District Judge grants the certificate; if an objection is filed, the matter is heard.
5. Take certified copies to each institution. Banks and depositories keep a copy, so obtain several certified copies at once rather than returning to the copying agency repeatedly.

Does a legal heir record expire?

No. A Tehsildar's finding on heirship and a District Judge's succession certificate both record a fact that does not change with time, and neither carries a renewal date. What can change is the family, a birth, a death or a court decree after the order was passed may require a fresh application, because an institution will not act on a list of heirs it can see is out of date.

Why do Chhattisgarh heirship files get rejected?

The commonest cause by far is an incomplete list of heirs. Leaving out a married daughter, a son living outside the state or a second wife invites an objection later and unravels everything built on the affidavit. Name everyone, including heirs who are waiving their share.

Close behind are a death certificate registered in the wrong jurisdiction, a residence proof that does not tie the deceased to that tehsil, mismatched spellings between the Aadhaar, the ration card and the land record, and a missing no-objection from an heir who is not applying. Where land is involved, an old khasra entry still standing in a grandfather's name means two generations of mutation have to be done before the current one can be.

What should this cost me?

The government fee for the revenue route is what the CG e-District portal prints on the service page, ₹30 for the Court Order Certificate (Revenue Court), and nothing at all for the death certificate, which Chhattisgarh made free in 2014. Applying directly yourself on the portal avoids even the ₹30 counter charge on most services.

Pay at the counter or on the portal, and take the receipt. Agents and middlemen outside tehsil offices routinely quote several thousand rupees for a legal heir file and describe it as a government charge. It is not. The only genuinely large cost in this process is the ad valorem court fee on a succession certificate petition, and that is paid to the court, not to an agent.