VICTORIA ARULDOSS Vs. TAHSILDAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Petitioner, viz., Mrs. Victoria Aruldoss, is the mother of Dr. Anil Lionel, who died on 06.10.2015. According to the Learned Counsel for the Petitioner, the Fourth Respondent, viz., Mrs. Adlin Mannah, who is the wife of the deceased Dr. Anil Lionel, had produced a copy of the Legal Heirship Certificate No. Pa. Mu. 9829/2015/A4 dated 10.11.2015, purported to have been issued by the First Respondent, showing the Petitioner and the Fourth Respondent as legal heirs of the deceased Dr. Anil Lionel in the application in O.A. No. 310/185/2019 filed by the Petitioner before the Central Administrative Tribunal, Madras Bench, Chennai for restraining the payment of the terminal benefits of the deceased Dr. Anil Lionel by his employer to the Fourth Respondent till the completion of the investigation of his death under suspicious circumstances. The aforesaid Legal Heirship Certificate issued by the First Respondent is challenged in the Writ Petition on the ground that the said Certificate, which bears the date as 10.11.2015, could not have been issued by the First Respondent, who does not possess requisite territorial jurisdiction as the deceased Dr. Anil Lionel was not a resident of that locality at the time of his death and that too, even before the death of the deceased Dr. Anil Lionel had been registered on 18.02.2016 under the provisions of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act , 1969. It is further contended that in any event, the name of the Seventh Respondent, viz., Mr. A. Sunil Franklin, who is the brother of the deceased Dr. Anil Lionel could not have been excluded as a legal heir in terms of Section 33 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, which governs them.

(2.) The First Respondent has filed Counter Affidavit dated 01.10.2019 stating that on verification of records in his office, it has been found that the Certificate No. Pa. Mu. 9829/2015/A4 dated 10.11.2015, which is impugned in the Writ Petition, is not genuine. In this regard, it would be necessary to extract the relevant portions therefrom, which read as follows:-