What Is the Court Fee for a Succession Certificate in Telangana 2026? Slab and Process
What Is the Court Fee for a Succession Certificate in Telangana 2026? Slab and Process
If a bank in Telangana has told you it needs a succession certificate before it will release a deceased person's account, that document comes from a civil court, and the court charges a percentage of whatever you list in it. The rate is statutory: two per cent at the bottom, six per cent above Rs 1,00,000, and three steps in between.
The percentage everyone quotes you is usually somebody else's step on that ladder. Which step is yours depends entirely on what you ask the certificate to cover, and that is a decision you make before you file.
Where this page sits
This page covers Telangana specifically: what the court actually charges and why the rate depends on what you list, which court has jurisdiction, and what the state does not publish about the timeline.
If what you actually need is proof of who the heirs are, that is the legal heir certificate route in Telangana. To hand the court application over, that is succession certificate services.
Related guides:
- How to apply for a legal heir certificate in Telangana
- Legal heir certificate in Hyderabad, and which mandal issues it
- Legal heir certificate or succession certificate, which one you need
What Is the Court Fee for a Succession Certificate in Telangana?
It is a slab, fixed by the Telangana Court-Fees and Suits Valuation Act 1956. Schedule I, Article 7 covers a "Certificate under the Indian Succession Act, 1925" and prices it like this:
| Amount or value in the certificate | Court fee |
|---|---|
| Does not exceed Rs 5,000 | Two per centum |
| Over Rs 5,000, up to Rs 25,000 | Three per centum |
| Over Rs 25,000, up to Rs 50,000 | Four per centum |
| Over Rs 50,000, up to Rs 1,00,000 | Five per centum |
| Over Rs 1,00,000 | Six per centum |
Read the column heading closely, because it is doing the real work. The Act charges on "the amount or value of the debt or security or the aggregate amount or value of the debts and securities specified in the certificate".
Not the estate. Not the deceased person's total wealth. What you list.
This matters because the fee is one of the few costs in this process you have any control over. A certificate asked for over three dormant accounts you will never need is priced on all three; one asked for over the two you actually have to reach is priced on two. So list what the family needs collected, not everything the family can remember.
Why Do Some Pages Say Three Per Cent and Others Say Six?
Because both numbers are on the ladder and neither is the whole ladder.
Three per cent is the second step, applying between Rs 5,000 and Rs 25,000. Six per cent is the top step, applying above Rs 1,00,000 and nowhere below it. Quoted alone, six per cent overstates the fee for every smaller certificate, and three per cent understates it for most real ones.
For instance, on a fixed deposit of Rs 80,000 the rate is neither: it is five per cent, the fourth step. On Rs 40,000 it is four.
Where securities are involved rather than cash, the Act says the value is "its market value on the day on which the inclusion of the security in the certificate is applied for". Shares are counted on the day you apply, not on the day the holder died. A holding that sat below a slab boundary at the date of death can sit above it by the day the petition is drawn, and it is the second figure the court works from.
Can a Succession Certificate Transfer a House?
No. It covers money, not land.
A certificate under Part X of the Indian Succession Act reaches debts and securities: bank balances, fixed deposits, shares, bonds, money owed to the deceased. The court-fee schedule prices it on exactly those and mentions no immovable property anywhere.
So the advice circulating that succession certificate stamp duty is a percentage of a property's value is describing a document that does not exist. If the asset is a flat or land, a succession certificate is not the instrument, and paying a percentage of the flat's value would be paying for something the certificate cannot do.
Where the question is who the heirs are rather than which account to collect, the document you want is the revenue department's and not the court's. That is the family member certificate, which Telangana's own district service listing puts with the Tahsildar as competent authority, applied for through MeeSeva.
Which Court Do You Apply To?
A succession certificate in Telangana is issued by a civil court, and the court you file in follows the deceased rather than you. The application goes to the court where the deceased ordinarily resided at the time of death, and where there is no such place, to a court in whose jurisdiction any part of the property is found.
That rule matters for families spread between cities. A son living in Bengaluru does not apply in Bengaluru because that is where he lives; the application follows where his father lived.
Take the death certificate, proof of your relationship to the deceased, and the details of every account or security you want covered, with the amount for each. The list is what the court prices, so assemble it before you file rather than amending it afterwards.
Want this handled end to end? WillJini prepares the petition, values the schedule and represents the application through the court. The service fee is quoted on enquiry. Call 080 6453 3964 or see succession certificate services.
What Happens If Probate Comes Later?
You get credit for what you have already paid.
The Act provides that where probate or letters of administration are granted over the same estate after a Part X certificate has been issued, "the fee payable for the latter grant shall be reduced by the amount of the fee paid for the former grant". For instance, a family that takes a certificate now to release one fixed deposit, and comes back later for probate over the wider estate, is not charged twice on that deposit.
The same section works the other way on extensions. If you go back to add assets you left out, the Act computes that extension "at one and a half times the rates specified above, credit being given for the fee already paid". Adding later is allowed and it is dearer. Better to find the forgotten deposit while the schedule is still a draft on your table.
How Long Does a Succession Certificate Take in Telangana?
Nobody publishes a figure. There is no published service standard for a succession certificate in Telangana, and the month counts you find online come from law firms rather than from the courts themselves.
What is fixed is the fee, because it sits in a statute. The calendar is fixed by nobody: no court publishes a service standard for this application, so an uncontested application moves on that court's own schedule and a contested one becomes a proceeding with its own.
The part you control is the front of it. File a complete schedule with correct values and clean relationship proof, and you remove the reasons a court sends a file back.
FAQs
What is the court fee for a succession certificate in Telangana?
A five-step slab under Schedule I, Article 7 of the Telangana Court-Fees and Suits Valuation Act 1956: two per cent up to Rs 5,000, three per cent to Rs 25,000, four per cent to Rs 50,000, five per cent to Rs 1,00,000, and six per cent above that.
Is the fee charged on the whole estate?
No. The Act charges on "the aggregate amount or value of the debts and securities specified in the certificate", so it is calculated on what the certificate lists and not on everything the deceased owned.
Can a succession certificate be used to transfer property in Telangana?
No. A certificate under Part X of the Indian Succession Act covers debts and securities such as bank balances, deposits and shares. Immovable property is outside it, so a percentage of a property's value is not what Article 7 charges.
How are shares valued for the court fee?
At market value on the day inclusion in the certificate is applied for, not at the value on the date of death.
If I get probate later, do I pay the fee twice?
No. Where probate or letters of administration are granted over the same estate afterwards, the fee for that grant is reduced by the fee already paid on the certificate.
How long does a succession certificate take in Telangana?
No court publishes a processing time, and the month ranges quoted on commercial sites are not drawn from any official service standard. The fee is fixed by statute. The calendar is fixed by nobody, so an uncontested application moves on the court's own schedule.
Which court issues a succession certificate?
The civil court where the deceased ordinarily resided at the time of death, or, where there is no such place, a court in whose jurisdiction any part of the property is found.
Every figure, office and timeline on this page traces to a government publication. Where the state publishes nothing, this page says so rather than borrowing a number from elsewhere.
- Telangana Court-Fees and Suits Valuation Act 1956, Schedule I Article 7 gov.inThe slab itself, and the provision that credits a fee already paid against a later grant of probate over the same estate. This is the statute, not a summary of it.
Jatin founded WillJini to make succession paperwork survivable for ordinary families, in a country where the office that issues a document, the fee it carries and the time it takes all change at the state line. He has been a member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India since January 1995.
- B.G.L., University of Mumbai
- Company Secretary
- ICSI member since 1995
Every page in this guide series is reviewed against the issuing department’s own published material before it goes up. Where a state publishes nothing, this site says so rather than borrowing a figure from elsewhere.
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