Henceforth, Tahsildars in southern districts might not refuse to issue legal heirship certificates on the ground of delay in making applications as Additional Advocate General (AAG) K. Chellapandian has communicated a court order on the issue to all the 13 District Revenue Officers (DROs) within the jurisdiction of the Madras High Court Bench here.
Justice T. Raja had held that delay in making applications could not be a ground to refuse legal heirship certificates. He had also directed the AAG to communicate the order passed by him to the DROs in Madurai, Dindigul, Sivaganga, Virudhunagar, Ramanathapuram, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Kanyakumari, Tiruchi, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Theni and Karur.
Disposing of a batch of writ petitions, the judge said the High Court had been flooded with cases accusing the Tahsildars in various districts of refusing to issue legal heirship certificates and forcing the applicants to approach the lower courts just because the applications had been preferred after a few years since the death of the individuals concerned.
He recalled that way back in 2009, the High Court had ordered that there was no limitation on making such applications and, therefore, the revenue officials concerned should not shirk their responsibility of issuing the certificates. A similar order was passed on April 17, 2013, making it clear that delay in making applications was not a valid reason for denying legal heirship certificates.
Yet, the officials were continuing to reject applications in defiance of the court orders as well as a 2009 Government Circular which merely stated that legal heirship certificates should be issued after a thorough verification by the jurisdictional Village Administrative Officer (VAO). The circular also did not lay down a specific period within which the applications should be made.
After pointing out the anomaly, the judge recorded the observation of the AAG that he would ask the DROs within the jurisdiction of the High Court Bench to issue written instructions to all the Tahsildars, Revenue Inspectors and the VAOs not to reject applications on the ground of delay and to dispose of every application within a maximum period of four weeks.
