When you do not need one at all
Before you file, check whether the asset needs a court document.
Where a bank account has a nominee or an either-or-survivor clause, meaning either holder can operate it, the Reserve Bank's 2025 directions say the bank must not insist on a succession certificate whatever the amount, and must settle within fifteen calendar days of complete documents.
Be clear what that decides. A nominee is who the bank may safely pay, not who owns the money. The nominee receives it for the estate, and the other heirs keep whatever share the succession rules give them. The same is true of a surviving joint holder: survivorship decides who the bank pays, not whose money it is. Without nomination, banks settle below a threshold of fifteen lakh rupees, or five lakh at a co-operative bank, unless the bank has fixed a higher one.
You may be told that a joint Hindu family share simply passes by survivorship, so no documentation is needed. For a death on or after 9 September 2005, that is no longer the law. The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005 rewrote Section 6. The deceased's share now passes under their will, or if there is no will, to their heirs, and the section says expressly that it does not pass "by survivorship". In practice the share is first worked out as though the family property had been divided on the day of death, and it then goes to the heirs, daughters, widow and mother included. Treating it as automatic is how female heirs get left out, and it is a question for an advocate rather than a family assumption.
Shares and mutual-fund units have their own simplified transmission framework, transmission being the process of moving them into an heir's name with thresholds below which an affidavit and indemnity suffice. Those thresholds were revised in 2026 and we are not quoting figures we could not read from the circular itself. Ask the registrar what applies to your folio before assuming a court is involved.
Which court
Under Section 371, the petition goes to the District Judge within whose jurisdiction the deceased ordinarily resided at the time of death.
Only if the deceased had no fixed place of residence does the fallback apply, which is the District Judge where any part of the property is found. People often assume they can file wherever the asset sits, or wherever they themselves have family. Usually they cannot.
One grant covers the country. Section 380 gives a succession certificate effect throughout India, so if the deceased held a deposit in one state and shares registered in another, you are not filing twice.
What the petition has to state
Section 372 sets out the contents, and a petition that misses one of them invites an objection.
The time of death. The ordinary residence at death, or the property within the court's jurisdiction if there was none. The family and other near relatives, with their residences. The right in which you claim. The absence of any impediment under Section 370, which your advocate settles. And the debts and securities you are asking the certificate to cover.
The right you claim comes from the deceased's personal law, and the shares under Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Parsi law differ materially. Settle the shares before the petition states them.
That last one matters more than people expect. The certificate covers what it specifies. A deposit you forgot is not covered, and extending a certificate later attracts its own fee.
The petition is verified, and a false statement in it is an offence.
What the court does next
Under Section 373 the Judge fixes a day for hearing, serves notice on anyone they think should receive it, posts notice on the court house, and publishes it in whatever other manner the Judge thinks fit, subject to the rules of that High Court.
One correction worth making, because it is repeated everywhere. There is no statutory objection window and no statutory newspaper period. The commonly quoted forty-five days is court practice, and it varies. The Act leaves publication to the Judge, subject to the rules of that High Court, and several High Courts do prescribe a local publication practice. That is why a newspaper step appears in some states and not others.
If the right cannot be decided without going into intricate questions of law or fact, the Judge may still grant the certificate to whoever appears, on the face of it, to have the best title. That avoids turning the petition into a full title suit.
We do not publish a timeline. The statute prescribes none, the published estimates contradict each other by a factor of five, and an uncontested petition behaves nothing like a contested one.
The court fee, and why the number depends on the state
The application must be accompanied by a deposit equal to the fee payable under the Court-fees Act. The fee is charged on the value of the debts and securities in the certificate, not on the whole estate. Anyone quoting a flat national percentage of the estate is wrong twice over.
The base position under the Court-fees Act 1870 is 2 percent on the debts and securities specified, and 3 percent on anything the certificate is later extended to. States legislate their own.
| State | Position |
|---|---|
| Where no state amendment applies, including Delhi | 2 percent on what is specified, 3 percent on an extension. Most states have amended the Act, so unless your state is named below, assume the rate and cap differ and confirm with the district court before you deposit anything |
| Maharashtra | The probate scale, rising from 2 percent to 7.5 percent, capped at 75,000 rupees. The cap is 10,000 rupees for a widow |
| Karnataka | Charged under Article 7 of Schedule I of the state Act. We could not verify the current slab from a primary source, and the figures circulating online conflict, so confirm it with the district court rather than budgeting from a web page |
| Tamil Nadu | 3 percent on what is specified, with no cap. The 25,000 rupee ceiling you will see quoted is on probate and letters of administration under a different article, and it does not apply to a succession certificate. On a large holding this is the difference between tens of thousands and lakhs |
On Delhi, a 2012 state amendment would have raised the rate, but it was struck down by the Delhi High Court in 2013, so the central rates apply. You will still find the higher figure quoted online.
Running it from abroad, and the one thing a POA cannot do
Section 372 allows the petition to be signed and verified "by or on behalf of the applicant". So a power of attorney holder can file and conduct it, and the Code of Civil Procedure lets a recognised agent appear.
Two limits, and the second is the one that catches people.
The Code's proviso lets the court direct that appearance be made by the party in person. It is not routine, but it is never certain to be excused.
More importantly, a power of attorney holder cannot give evidence on matters only you can know about. The Supreme Court held in Janki Vashdeo Bhojwani v Indusind Bank that such a holder cannot depose on matters of which the principal alone can have personal knowledge, and on which the principal is entitled to be cross examined. If your petition is uncontested, the POA route usually carries it. If a sibling contests facts only you know, you may have to give evidence yourself, and no power of attorney fixes that.
The power of attorney itself has to be executed and authenticated the way India requires for a document signed abroad, and stamped once it reaches India.