Chennai, Jun 22 (PTI) The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to issue a fresh order in respect of classification of Class-I and Class-II legal heirs under the Hindu Succession Act.
A Full Bench of Justices P N Prakash, R Hemalatha and A A Nakkiran, gave the direction last week.
The government shall issue the fresh GO in lieu of Circular No.9 of 2019, without any anomaly, in particular the usage of the expressions “Class-I” and “Class-II” legal heirs under the Hindu Succession Act.
The government shall consider incorporating a father, blood brother/sister as eligible applicants for unmarried deceased, as also the administrative remedies of appeal and revision found in paragraphs 9 and 10 of the 2019 Circular. This exercise shall be completed within six weeks, the bench said.
It said that the classification of persons as Class-I and Class-II heirs in the 2019 circular and their application to the heirs of a deceased female Hindu or non-Hindu would lead to chaos. “We find the entire edifice of the classification in the circular is founded on a fallacy that the concept of Class-I and Class-II legal heirs, which are applicable to the heirs of a deceased Hindu male under Section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act, could be extended across the Board to all religions.” The Full Bench was constituted by the Chief Justice on a reference made by Justice M Dhandapani by an order dated January 19 on a batch of over 45 writ petitions to answer three questions, including whether the High Court, sitting under Article 226 of the Constitution, can create a different mechanism from the one already built in under the Succession Act for obtaining succession certificate, for the mere reason that the mechanism provided under it is cumbersome and time-consuming and involves precious judicial time.
The bench said that legal heirship is a status governed by the respective personal law of parties through various statutes. The certificates issued by the Tahsildar amount to nothing more than a relationship certificate reflecting his opinion as to the relationship of the applicant and others named therein with the deceased. Consequently, the certificate issued by the Tahsildar does not affect the legal right of any party and has no bearing on the status of a legal heir which is conferred on an individual under his/her personal law.
An administrative circular does not have the force of law and does not bind the citizen or the Court. They, however, bind the Tahsildar as a measure of ensuring administrative discipline and securing consistency in decision-making. The discretion of the Tahsildar is circumscribed by these administrative instructions which may be issued, from time to time, by the Commissioner of Land Administration. PTI CORR SA SA
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