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Introduction
It is often seen that after the death of a person there are disputes between his legal heirs regarding his estate like house, Fixed Deposits, Shares, Bonds, Post Office Savings deposit, LIC claim, to name a few. Often one of the parties by way of a swift action files a case of Succession Certificate and before anyone knows anything the money of the deceased is given to the said person who was even not entitled to the money. One example of it is, which is very generally seen, when after Father’s death one of the children obtains a Succession Certificate and gets all the money from the Bank or LIC and spends all of it for his own benefit before any other sibling could claim their share in the said amount.
Other siblings gets cheated becasuse little is known about the meaning of Succession Certificate and only a handful of people know that losing a Succession Certificate case does not mean that one is not entitled to the money mentioned in the Succession Certificate. Even a Succession Certificate does not deal with title to money at all. So rather than conceding defeat a party, should first file a separate case/Suit to attach the money which is given to only one of the brothers, before he spends all of it.
In the present case we will discuss one such case where a party filed a subsequent suit to claim the money wrongly claimed by the person who won the Succession case and the Supreme Court held that losing a Succession Certificate case is not a bar to institute a further case to claim the money which might have been wrongly denied to its rightful claimant. it is pertinent to note that the party which filed this Appeal before Supreme Court has lost in all three courts below.
So let’s, without any further ado, proceed to the facts of the case.
Brief Facts
In this case A claimed that he is the brother of the deceased B and he is entitled to his properties like land etc. as B died intestate (meaning without making a Will). At the same time, as B have died A filed an application under Section 372 of Indian Succession Act, 1925 (in short ISA, 1925) for Succession Certificate in respect of the money on the LIC policy in the name of B. The Succession Case was won by A. But when the other legal heirs of B claimed other properties B like his land, the court decided that as the Succession Certificate case has gone against them, they cannot file another case again. Finally the matter went to Supreme Court.
Now, before proceeding any further let’s first see what a Succession Certificate is.
What is a Succession Certificate?
Succession Certificate is a document through which a person claims money or debt from another person who holds this debt or money on behalf of the deceased. Like in the present case on the death of B, LIC has to pay someone the money on behalf of B. So LIC became a debtor to B’s nominee or legal heir. Now as most of us know that if B had appointed a nominee when he took out the LIC policy, as is generally appointed in case of Fixed Deposits in banks or for Post Office Savings Account in India Post offices or while purchasing Government bonds from RBI, then there is no problem as the money will be directly given by LIC to this nominee. (Nominee need not necessarily have to be a son, daughter or wife and it can be anyone, even a stranger to the deceased). But if there is no nominee then the family members/legal heirs of B have to get a Succession Certificate from a Court stating that they are entitled to get the money from LIC.
(Kindly note that in this Article we are assuming that the deceased person did not make any Will and hence died intestate. If a Will would have been made then either Probate of the Will {in case when Executor is appointed by the Will} or Letters of Administration {in case when Executor is not appointed by the Will} have to be obtained from a Court to claim LIC money. For more understanding of a Will kindly see this Article and how to obtain Probate and Letters of Administration kindly see this Article).
Now let’s see what happens in a Succession Certificate case. The Succession Court only prima facie (meaning superficially) sees as to who is entitled to receive money from the LIC and will not enter into elaborate evidence. That’s why the proceedings under Section 372 of Indian Succession Act, 1925 are called Summary Proceedings and elaborate evidence is not required to be taken which is in contrast to the suit proceedings in which exhaustive issues are framed; chief examination, cross examination and re-examination of the witnesses are conducted. That is why Section 372 proceedings are not called a suit but a Succession case and the Court is called Succession Court and rather than a plaint an application is filed under ISA, 1925.
But why Summary proceedings?
This is for the reason that the aim of the Succession Certificate is not to decide title amongst the legal heirs of the deceased person but only to prove as to who is entitled to receive the money from the LIC/Bank/Post Office/RBI, so that these institutions are free from any liability in future. Let’s understand this by way of an example. Let’s say X goes to Court to obtain a Succession Certificate in respect of a Fixed Deposit of Rs.100/- held by Y in a bank prior to his death, on the ground that she is the wife of the deceased. It is challenged by Y’s brother Z stating that Y was never married and hence the amount in the bank should be given to him as he is Y’s brother and not to X. Now during the proceedings X proves prima facie that she is the wife of Y. So, the Court grants the Succession Certificate to X which means that it tells to the Bank that if the Bank released the money in the Fixed Deposit to X today, tomorrow no one can file a case against the Bank stating that the Bank has done an illegal act by releasing the money to a wrong person. In legal language it is called a “Valid Discharge” of the bank.
But what about Z? As Succession certificate proceedings have gone against him, should he forget about the FD amount? The answer to that is plain No. This is for the reason that the Succession Certificate does not decide any right or the title to the Rs.100/-. The Succession Court only has the right to tell the bank/LIC/Post Office, to whom it should give the money in order to get a valid discharge and nothing else.
So Z can file a suit tomorrow claiming that he is the brother of Y and hence entitled to money which X received from the bank. In this suit, Z have to make X a party (as she has the money which she received from the bank) but he cannot make bank a party as bank was freed from any future liability when it gave Rs.100/- to X as per the Succession Certificate issued by the Court. Now in this suit it will be decided whether X is the wife of Y or not, that too after elaborate evidence and not summarily. If it is proved that X is not the wife of Y then as per Section 8 and Schedule I of Hindu Succession Act, 1956, Z who is the brother of Y is entitled to any money which Y owned before his death. And hence X has to give Rs.100/- together with interest to Z.
So, only because Succession Court decided that X is the wife of Y, it does not mean that it is a final finding as it was arrived in a Summary proceeding and this finding can be challenged by Z in a subsequent suit.
Based on this reasoning the Supreme Court decided the case in favour of the party which have lost in all the three courts below.
Conclusion
Many a times a defeat in a particular case leads an honest party to assume that he has lost the battle, but that may not be true. Law is very subtle and only lawyers who specialize in a particular area know when a case is over and when a battle has just started. Take for example a case of Landlord-Tenant dispute under the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958, where fleetingly the Rent Controller decides that the landlord does not have title and tenant wins the case. But it does not affect the title of the landlord a bit and he will still be the owner of the tenanted property as Rent Controller never had any jurisdiction (read power) to decide title and ownership.
But who will guide a Landlord about his said right. Of Course someone who himself is practising in a niche discipline of Landlord-Tenant Dispute. Same is the case with Succession Certificate where a lawyer practising in that niche area can only take his Client in the right direction. It was only the fine guidance of the Advocate which took the client to Supreme Court and won the case for him despite losing in all the three Courts below.
Hence expertise is what an honest client shoeld seek in order to vindicate his right.
Parveen Semwal
Advocate, High Court of Delhi and Supreme Court of India