If an Indian bank has frozen your late parent's account and asked you for a succession certificate, you can get one without flying to India. But check what the estate holds first: the certificate covers bank balances, deposits and shares, and a Sub-Registrar will not transfer a flat against it. It is a petition to the civil court where the deceased ordinarily resided, and an advocate in India can file and pursue it on a power of attorney. The court fee is charged on the value of the assets, band by band, and it is capped.

Before you start, check one thing, because it decides whether this is even the right document. A succession certificate covers movable assets only: bank balances, fixed deposits, shares, mutual fund units, debentures. If what you have inherited is a flat or land, this certificate will not transfer it, and a petition for it is time and court fee spent on the wrong instrument.

Where this page sits

This page covers the succession certificate specifically: what it does and does not cover, which court hears the petition, how an heir living abroad files without travelling, the power of attorney chain and the deadline inside it, and what the court fee is actually charged on.

If the estate includes immovable property, that is a different route: see transferring inherited property in India from abroad.

Related guides:

• Difference between a legal heir certificate and a succession certificate
• Inheritance assistance for NRIs

What Does a Succession Certificate Actually Cover?

Debts and securities. Nothing else.

That is the whole of it, and it is the single most expensive misunderstanding in this area. The certificate authorises the holder to collect debts owed to the deceased and to transfer securities standing in their name. A bank releases a balance against it. A registrar of companies transfers shares against it. A sub-registrar does not transfer a flat against it, because immovable property is not a debt or a security.

Families discover this after filing. The guides that rank for this question, including the two published by large Indian banks that Google's own AI Overview quotes most often, do say the certificate is limited to movables. What they do not say is what an heir abroad should do about the other half of the estate, which is usually the larger half.

Which Court Hears the Petition, and Where?

The civil court of original jurisdiction for the place where the deceased ordinarily resided at the time of death. If they had no fixed residence in India, it is the court where any part of the property is situated.

That second limb is the one that matters to families who moved a parent abroad late in life. The bank branch holding the deposit is not automatically the deciding factor, and neither is where the heirs live. Get the jurisdiction wrong and the petition is returned, months later.

This is also where the widely cited guides stop. Both of the bank guides Google quotes describe filing "before the judge of a principal civil court of original jurisdiction" and name no court, no district and no test for choosing between two. That sentence is the statute, restated. It is not an answer to somebody sitting in New Jersey with a Pune address on a death certificate.

Can an NRI File Without Coming to India?

Yes, in an uncontested matter, through an advocate acting on a registered power of attorney.

The power of attorney is the part that goes wrong, and it goes wrong in a way that is not recoverable by arguing. It has to survive three steps in order:

1. Executed and notarised where you live.
2. Legalised for use in India. If you are in a country that is party to the Hague Apostille Convention, that means an apostille. If you are not, it means attestation by the Indian consulate with jurisdiction over your address. These are different processes and one is not a substitute for the other.
3. Stamped in India, within three months of the document reaching India. This is the deadline nobody mentions. It runs from arrival in India, not from the date you signed it, and it does not restart.

For instance, a son in Toronto signs and apostilles a power of attorney in March, couriers it to his cousin in Mumbai, and the family does nothing with it until the advocate is instructed in August. The apostille is perfectly valid. The three months ran out in June, and the instrument now has to be dealt with as an unstamped document before anybody can file on it.

This matters because every guide that tells an NRI they can "handle it remotely with a POA" is telling the truth and leaving out the only part with a clock on it.

What Is the Court Fee Charged On?

The value of the debts and securities you are asking the certificate to cover, charged ad valorem in bands and subject to a maximum.

We are deliberately not printing a percentage table here, and the reason is worth stating plainly. In Maharashtra the operative Schedule I of the Court-fees Act is genuinely unsettled: a 2018 amending Act was passed but commences only on a date the State Government appoints by notification, and no commencement notification could be located. The consolidated text published since carries different bands and a different maximum from the amended one. The Department of Registration and Stamps does not publish a current consolidated court fee table for this. So the honest position is structural: the fee is proportionate to the value claimed, it rises in bands, and it is capped. Anybody quoting you a single flat percentage for Maharashtra is quoting a figure they have not checked the commencement of.

There is one rule in this area that is settled and that almost nobody tells you. If a certificate is granted over an estate and probate or letters of administration are later granted over the same estate, the fee on the later grant is reduced by the fee already paid. For a family that starts with a bank account and later has to deal with a house, that set-off is real money, and it is a reason to sequence the two applications deliberately rather than treat them as unrelated errands.

What Happens After You File?

The court issues a notice, publishes it, and waits.

The publication step exists so that anyone with a competing claim can appear. In an uncontested matter the waiting is the process, and the timeline is driven by the court's list rather than by anything you or your advocate can accelerate. Where a caveat is filed, the matter stops being a petition and becomes a contest, and the arithmetic changes entirely.

What Should an NRI Get Right Before Filing?

Four things, in this order.

First, whether a succession certificate is the instrument you need at all, or whether the estate is mostly immovable and you are about to spend a court fee on the wrong half of it.

Second, the correct court, decided on where the deceased ordinarily resided rather than on where the bank or the heirs are.

Third, the power of attorney chain, executed in the right order and stamped inside the three months.

Fourth, an itemised list of the debts and securities, because the certificate covers what it names and a bank will not release an account that was left off the schedule.

Get those four settled and the filing itself is administrative.

FAQs

Can an NRI get a succession certificate without travelling to India?

Yes, in an uncontested matter. An advocate in India can file and pursue the petition on a power of attorney executed abroad, provided that power of attorney has been apostilled or consulate-attested and then stamped in India within three months of reaching India.

Does a succession certificate transfer inherited property?

No. It covers debts and securities: bank balances, deposits, shares, mutual fund units and debentures. Immovable property is not transferred by it and needs a different route.

Which court issues a succession certificate?

The civil court of original jurisdiction for the place where the deceased ordinarily resided at the time of death, or, where there was no fixed residence in India, the court where any part of the property is situated.

How much is the court fee?

It is charged on the value of the debts and securities covered, ad valorem in bands, and it is capped. Maharashtra does not publish a current consolidated fee table, and the operative schedule is unsettled because a 2018 amendment awaits a commencement notification, so a single flat percentage quoted to you should be treated with caution.

Is the court fee wasted if we later need probate?

No. Where probate or letters of administration are later granted over the same estate, the fee on the later grant is reduced by the fee already paid on the certificate.

What is the deadline on a power of attorney executed abroad?

It must be stamped in India within three months of the document reaching India. The clock runs from arrival in India, not from the date of signing.