Dad’s death certificate fails to help man on legal heir claim

VELLORE: Red-tapism by the revenue department has deprived a plumber of a much needed legal heir certificate and the man, who has been trying to get the document for over two years, is not able to access bank accounts or transfer the gas connection held by his deceased mother’s to his name.

Kannammal, mother of N Ramesh (37), a plumber of Kangeyanallur in Katpadi taluk, passed away in 2021. Ramesh’s father Nagrathinam had died in 1993.

As Ramesh is the only child to his parents, he applied for a legal heir certificate, which is mandatory for transfer of all movable and immovable assets owned by his parents to his name, through the Village Assistant Officer (VAO) to the revenue department. Ramesh did not have the death certificate, which is a mandatory document evidence. The VAO offered to get the legal heir certificate to Ramesh without producing the father’s death certificate, if the latter was ready to pay 5,000 as ‘special charges.’ However, officials rejected his application citing that his father’s death certificate was not attached.

Though Ramesh explained his experience with the VAO to revenue officials and reapplied on February 2, 2022, his application was returned citing the same reason.

Ramesh finally managed to trace the ‘long lost’ death certificate of his father and applied again on July 21, 2023. But this time too, the application was returned by the Tahsildar questioning the ‘genuineness’ of the death certificate.

“I do not understand why the genuineness of my father’s death certificate was doubted when my mother had used it to get her widow’s pension for 25 years,” Ramesh told DT Next. Ramesh said that he did explain to the officials, but there has been no word on when or if at all he will the document.