A bank has asked you for one of these and you are not sure which. They are different documents. A legal heir certificate names who the heirs are and is issued by the Tahsildar in most states. A succession certificate is a civil court order letting you collect the deceased's debts and securities. If shares or a fixed deposit are being held, the court document is the one you need.

Most families find this out the expensive way, having applied for one, waited, and been told to start again with the other. The clerk turning them away is not being difficult. The two documents do genuinely different jobs, and the institution holding the asset is the one that decides which job needs doing.

Where this page sits

This page covers the choice between the two documents: which one a bank, a housing society or a government employer will actually accept, whether a heirship certificate is a third thing, what each one costs, and what changed in December 2025.

For how to apply in your own state, follow the state guide rather than this page.

Related guides:

• How to apply for a legal heir certificate in Maharashtra
• How to apply for a legal heir certificate in Telangana
• Nominee versus legal heir, for when the bank account already names someone

Which One Do You Actually Need?

Whichever one the institution holding the asset will accept, and the kind of asset decides that. A bank or a company sitting on shares, a deposit or a debenture wants a court's authority to release them, which is the succession certificate. A pension office, a provident fund or a property record wants proof of who the family is, which is the legal heir certificate. So start from what is being withheld rather than from what the document is called.

For instance, an applicant claiming a deceased parent's provident fund from a government employer is asked for the legal heir certificate. The same applicant claiming that parent's fixed deposit at a bank is sent to the civil court.

The dividing line is the kind of asset. Movable assets held by a third party who wants a court's authority before releasing them mean a succession certificate. Establishing family relationship for a benefit means a legal heir certificate.

Are a Legal Heir Certificate and a Succession Certificate the Same Thing?

No, and the sources that say otherwise cause real delay. They differ in who issues them, what they prove, how long they take and what they cost.

A legal heir certificate is an administrative record. A succession certificate is a court order. The whole difference between legal heir certificate and succession certificate follows from that: one issues in weeks from a revenue office, the other takes months and carries a fee scaled to the money involved.

What Is a Heirship Certificate, and How Does It Differ From a Succession Certificate?

A heirship certificate is not a third document. It is the legal heir certificate under another name, and the states have their own vocabulary for it.

• Telangana district services call it a family membership certificate
• Tamil Nadu uses varisu certificate
• Parts of Uttar Pradesh and Telangana say waris certificate
• Maharashtra revenue records use varasa for the heirship entry

For instance, a Tamil Nadu form asking for a varisu certificate and a Telangana form asking for a family membership certificate are asking for the same document. If a form or an officer uses one of these words, you are being asked for the legal heir certificate, not for anything additional.

Which settles the second half of the question. The difference between heirship certificate and succession certificate is the one already set out above. A heirship certificate is a revenue record of who the family is, and a succession certificate is a civil court's authority to collect specified debts and securities.

Where Do You Apply for a Legal Heir Certificate?

Through the state's citizen services portal where the state offers it online, and at the Tahsildar's office where it does not. The table below is the split.

Bring the death certificate, proof of relationship for every heir named, identity and address proof, and an affidavit listing the surviving family members. Keep the relationship proof in order before you apply, because an heir whose name appears differently across two documents has to be reconciled before the file moves.

What happens after you apply is a revenue enquiry, and it is the same enquiry whether the file goes in through MeeSeva in Telangana or across the counter at the Tahsildar office in Maharashtra, which has notified no online route at all. The application goes to the Tahsildar, a revenue official verifies the family details locally, and the certificate issues once that verification is complete. Nothing is contested unless someone objects, which is why the timeline is measured in weeks rather than months.

The state guides set out the specifics: Maharashtra and Telangana.

What Does a Succession Certificate Cost?

A court fee charged on the value of the assets it covers. There is no flat answer, because nobody can price it before they have seen the list of what it must cover.

Telangana shows the shape of it, because its scale is published and current. Schedule I, Article 7 of the Telangana Court-Fees and Suits Valuation Act 1956 charges a certificate in rising bands:

The scale is gentler than the top rate makes it look, because it is charged band by band rather than at the highest rate on the whole value. The practical consequence is that the fee follows the list you file, so an inflated list is a more expensive list.

Every state legislates its own scale, so the number depends on where the petition is filed. In Maharashtra, Schedule I Article 11 of the Maharashtra Court-fees Act, 1959 charges the probate rate in Article 10 on the debts and securities specified in the certificate: 2 per cent on the value up to Rs 50,000, 4 per cent on the part above that up to Rs 2,00,000, 6 per cent up to Rs 3,00,000, and 7.5 per cent above it, subject to the maximum of 75,000 rupees against the top band. A 2017 amending Act would replace those figures and has not been brought into force. Confirm your own state's scale before you budget, and treat any single all-India percentage you are quoted as a guess.

One rule is worth knowing before you sequence anything. Where a succession certificate has been 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. This matters because a family that starts with a fixed deposit and later has to deal with a house does not pay the full scale twice, provided the two applications are made in that order and the earlier payment is put in front of the later court. The Maharashtra process is set out in how to get a succession certificate in Maharashtra.

What Happens in Court When You Apply for a Succession Certificate?

Expect it to run in four stages, and expect the third to be the one that decides how long you wait.

Stage 1: The petition. An heir petitions the civil court with jurisdiction, listing the deceased, the heirs, and each debt and security the certificate is to cover. The court fee is calculated on that list, so the list has to be right before it is filed.

Stage 2: Notice. The court issues notice to the other heirs and publishes it, so that anyone with a competing claim is on record.

Stage 3: Objections. Any heir may object. Where nobody does, the matter moves. Where somebody does, the court hears it, and that is the difference between a grant in a few months and one that runs considerably longer.

Stage 4: The grant. The court issues the certificate, and the bank or company releases the assets named in it. Assets left off the petition are not covered, which is why an incomplete list means going back.

Do You Still Need a Succession Certificate if There Is a Will?

Often yes, but for a different reason than before 20 December 2025, and the change is recent enough that most of what you will read about it is out of date.

Until that date, section 213 of the Indian Succession Act barred an executor or legatee from establishing any right under certain wills until a court had granted probate. The Repealing and Amending Act, 2025 omitted the section outright, took the cross reference out of section 3(1), and amended section 370 so that a succession certificate no longer turns on probate at all. It received assent on 20 December 2025 and carries no commencement clause, so it took effect that day.

What has not changed is the part families actually run into. A will does not compel a bank to release a fixed deposit, and it never did. Where a will does not cover the specific holding, or where the executor needs authority over debts and securities rather than over the estate at large, a succession certificate is still the document that moves the money. What the repeal removed was a court step that stood in the way even when nobody was in dispute.

Check the date on anything you read on this, including what an AI assistant tells you, because the change postdates a great deal of published guidance and a great deal of training data.

FAQs

Can a legal heir certificate be used instead of a succession certificate?

Not where the asset is a debt or a security. A bank or company holding shares, debentures or a deposit is entitled to insist on the court's authority, and a legal heir certificate does not confer it. For pensions, provident fund and government family benefits, the legal heir certificate is normally what is asked for.

Is a succession certificate the same as a heirship certificate?

No. A heirship certificate is another name for the legal heir certificate, issued by the revenue authority. The succession certificate comes from a civil court under Part X of the Indian Succession Act, 1925.

Who can apply for these certificates?

The spouse, children, parents and, depending on the state, the siblings of the deceased. For a succession certificate the applicant must have an interest in the debt or security concerned.

How long does each one take?

A legal heir certificate is usually issued in weeks once the revenue enquiry is complete. A succession certificate runs to months, because the court issues notice, invites objections and hears any that arrive before granting it.

Is a succession certificate needed when the bank account has a nominee?

Usually not for release of the balance, because a nominee can receive it. A nominee holds the money for the heirs rather than inheriting it, so where the heirs disagree the court document still settles who is entitled. The distinction is set out in nominee versus legal heir.

Does either document decide who inherits?

No. Neither creates ownership. A legal heir certificate records who the heirs are and a succession certificate authorises collection of specific assets. Who inherits is settled by the will, or by the personal law of succession where there is none.