Was the person who died a government servant? In Karnataka that single question decides what your family can apply for. If yes, a legal heir certificate. If not, the state's answer is the Surviving Family Member Certificate: Rs 25 on Seva Sindhu, five documents, and a notified 7 days.

Settle one more thing before you queue anywhere: what the document is for. Records, benefit claims, the paperwork an employer or a pension office wants, the Surviving Family Member Certificate carries all of that. A bank balance, a fixed deposit or shares it does not touch. Karnataka's district administrations say the rest themselves: money means a succession certificate from the jurisdictional civil court, and that route begins with a suit, not a form.

Where this page sits

This page covers Karnataka specifically: which families the state still issues a legal heir certificate to, the certificate everyone else applies for, the fee, the seven day clock, the five documents, and the point where only the civil court can help.

If the death was in Bangalore, the city page, legal heir certificate in Bangalore, adds what belongs to the city alone: the office, its address and the death registration step. If you are not in Karnataka at all, start with the next section, because this state's rule is not yours.

Related guides:

• How to apply for a legal heir certificate in India
• Legal heir certificate vs succession certificate, choosing the right one

What If You Are Not in Karnataka?

Then set the restriction on this page aside. Most states still issue a legal heir certificate to any family of the person who died, whoever employed them.

Maharashtra does, in person rather than through a portal. It is not notified there as an online service, so it is not on Aaple Sarkar, and the state publishes neither a fee nor a timeline for it; our Maharashtra guide covers that application. Telangana does too, through MeeSeva under the Tahsildar of your mandal, with no fee or number of days published, and our Telangana guide walks the application step by step. For every other state the honest answer is that the rules differ, and the place to check is your own state's revenue department, not an article about Karnataka.

Who Can Still Get a Legal Heir Certificate in Karnataka?

The kin of deceased government servants. That is the whole list.

The Bengaluru Urban district administration spells it out in one sentence: "In Karnataka, a legal heir certificate is now only issued to the kin of deceased govt servants." The identical wording sits on the district sites for Kolar, Hassan, Tumkur, Mandya, Chamarajanagar, Davanagere, Haveri and Kodagu, which settles whether this is one office's shorthand or the state's rule. It is the rule.

A legal heir certificate in Karnataka is now a government family's document, and here the phrase has quietly stopped meaning what it still means across most of India. Bank letters sometimes write it as a legal heirship certificate; the different name changes nothing here. And for this certificate the state publishes nothing further, no fee and no service time, so any figure you are quoted for it is somebody's invention. If your family is in that narrow group, the application sits with your district administration; the Bangalore page above names the office for Bengaluru Urban.

What Is the Surviving Family Member Certificate?

The document Karnataka actually runs for private families, under a name almost nobody searches for.

The Revenue Department lists it on Seva Sindhu with its purpose stated plainly: proof of the surviving members of a family, used to claim benefits and in government service matters where a surviving member gets preference. It is the Deputy Tahsildar at the Atalji Janasnehi Kendra who signs it.

The name gap is the first thing to clear. The letter in your hand says legal heir certificate. The state's service list says Surviving Family Member Certificate. Neither mentions the other. This matters because a family searching the phrase it was given reads page after page about a certificate it cannot have.

Whether this one satisfies whoever asked depends on what they are holding: for records, benefits and employer paperwork, this is the certificate Karnataka issues a private family. Where the asset is money or securities, no revenue certificate will do, and the court section further down is the one that applies to you.

What Happened to the Nadakacheri Legal Heir Certificate?

Nadakacheri is still there. What changed is what a private family can get through it.

Nadakacheri is the name most of Karnataka still uses for the Atalji Janasnehi Kendra offices and their portal, and for years every guide, bank clerk and helpful relative has said the same thing: go there for the legal heir certificate. Most of what you will read about the legal heir certificate in Karnataka still says exactly that, because it was written before the narrowing and never went back to check.

For a private family, the application those offices handle today is the Surviving Family Member Certificate. The route did not close; the document at the end of it changed. The pricing has not: Nadakacheri's own procedure page puts the charge for every certificate application at Rs 25, and makes applications under social security schemes free of cost.

So keep going to the same offices. Change what you ask for when you get there.

How Do You Apply for the Surviving Family Member Certificate?

The application is short, and every part of it is published.

Step 1: Get the death certificate issued first

It leads the state's own document list, and nothing on this page moves without it, the court petition included. If the death is not yet registered, sort that before any application goes in.

Step 2: Apply on Seva Sindhu or at a Grama One, B1 or K1 counter

Online, the service sits on Seva Sindhu under the Revenue Department. In person, the same application goes in at a Grama One, B1 or K1 counter. The application fee is Rs 25 either way, and the counters collect a further Rs 25 as a service charge.

Step 3: Attach the five documents

Karnataka asks for identity proof, address proof, the death certificate, the ration card and the EPIC card, which is the voter identity card. Keep the set together before you begin; the list is short enough that there is no reason to apply with a gap in it.

Step 4: Save the Sakala acknowledgement

The application ends with a Sakala acknowledgement being generated. Note it somewhere that survives the day, because from here on that number is what the file answers to.

How Many Days Does It Take in Karnataka?

The notified service time is 7 days, and notified is the load-bearing word.

The Surviving Family Member Certificate is a Sakala service. Under Karnataka's guarantee of services law, a notified service is bound to the time limit published for it, and the Sakala acknowledgement generated at the end of your application is the proof you hold of that binding. An estimate has no owner; a notified number does. If the file runs past the seven days, the acknowledgement number is what your escalation quotes.

The 7 to 15 days still quoted around the internet for Karnataka is an estimate wearing a notification's clothes. The state's published figure is 7. And a Karnataka family holds something a Maharashtra or Telangana family does not, because neither of those states publishes any service time for its equivalent: here, the department set itself a date in writing.

Why Does a Bank Ask for a Succession Certificate?

Because nothing a revenue office issues in Karnataka authorises the release of money, and the bank knows it.

A revenue certificate establishes who the family is. A bank holding a deposit, a registrar holding shares or a fund house holding units needs authority to hand the asset over, which is a different thing to prove. The district administrations finish their own sentence on this: "Everyone else has to obtain a succession certificate through their jurisdictional civil court. It requires filing a suit before the court applying for this certificate."

A suit, before a court, ending in a certificate that authorises collection. The court fee is charged on the value of the assets the petition lists, so the cost follows the estate rather than a flat schedule. Getting the list of heirs and the list of assets right is the real work in it; this is drafting, not form-filling.

For instance, two neighbours in Hubballi lose their fathers in the same month. One father was a government servant, so that family can apply for the legal heir certificate. The other ran a hardware shop, so his family applies for the Surviving Family Member Certificate, pays its Rs 25 and has its answer within the notified 7 days. And if it is the shop's current account the family needs released, their route is the succession certificate through the civil court, whatever the branch keeps calling it.

Most families do not do this part alone. WillJini prepares and files succession certificate petitions for families across Karnataka and handles the revenue applications that come before them; the service fee is quoted on enquiry. Start at legal heir certificate services, or with which certificate you actually need if your situation still sits on the line.

FAQs

Is a legal heir certificate still issued in Karnataka?

Yes, to one group. The Bengaluru Urban district administration, in wording repeated across eight other district sites, states that it is now issued only to the kin of deceased government servants. A private family applies for the Surviving Family Member Certificate through Seva Sindhu instead, and for a succession certificate through the civil court where money is involved.

Can you get a legal heir certificate through Nadakacheri now?

Not as a private family. The Atalji Janasnehi Kendra offices, which most of Karnataka still calls Nadakacheri, take the Surviving Family Member Certificate application: you apply on Seva Sindhu or at a Grama One, B1 or K1 counter, and the Deputy Tahsildar signs it. The legal heir certificate itself is open only to the kin of deceased government servants, and that application sits with the district administration rather than with these counters.

What is the fee for a legal heir certificate in Karnataka?

For the restricted legal heir certificate, Karnataka publishes no fee at all. For the Surviving Family Member Certificate, Seva Sindhu lists an application fee of Rs 25 with a further Rs 25 service charge at Grama One, B1 and K1 counters, and Nadakacheri's procedure page carries the same Rs 25 per certificate application.

How many days does it take to get a legal heir certificate in Karnataka?

The Surviving Family Member Certificate carries a notified service time of 7 days on Seva Sindhu, held to through the Sakala acknowledgement the application generates. The restricted legal heir certificate has no published timeline, and no Karnataka notification supports the 7 to 15 days many pages still quote.

What is the Surviving Family Member Certificate used for?

Karnataka describes it as proof of the surviving members of a family, for claiming benefits and for government service matters where a surviving member gets preference. It covers the records and benefits side of a death. It does not authorise collecting the deceased's money or securities, which needs a succession certificate from the civil court.

Do other states restrict the legal heir certificate the way Karnataka does?

Not in Maharashtra or Telangana. Maharashtra issues legal heir certificates to any family, in person rather than through a portal, and Telangana issues its equivalent through MeeSeva under the mandal Tahsildar. The restriction on this page belongs to Karnataka, published by its district administrations, and it does not travel across a state border. For any other state the rules differ, so check that state's revenue department rather than reading Karnataka's position as national law.