Delhi District Court
Smt. Raj Rani vs State (Gnct Of Delhi) on 1 August, 2023
SC No. 41/2021 Smt. Raj Rani & Ors.. v. State (GNCT of Delhi)
IN THE COURT OF MS. NEHA PRIYA
ACJ-cum-CCJ-cum-ARC, SOUTH
SAKET COURTS, DELHI.
SC No.41/2021
CNR No. DLST03-000392-2021
1. Smt. Raj Rani
W/o Late Sh. Ashok Kumar Gupta
R/o H. No.359, Gali No. D-26
Opposite Post Office, Chhatterpur
New Delhi-74
2. Ankit Gupta
S/o Late Sh. Ashok Kumar Gupta
R/o H. No.359, Gali No. D-26
Opposite Post Office, Chhatterpur
New Delhi-74
3. Smt. Priyanka Gupta
D/o Late Sh. Ashok Kumar Gupta
W/o Sh. Ashish Bansal
R/o Flat no.604, Divya Apartments
GH-7, Sector-56, Gurgaon
Haryana-122011
........Petitioners
Versus
1. State (GNCT of Delhi)
Through Chief Secretary
Delhi Secretariat, I.P. Estate
Delhi
2. SDM (South), Mehrauli
Old Tehsil Building
Mehrauli, New Delhi-110030
......Respondents
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SC No. 41/2021 Smt. Raj Rani & Ors.. v. State (GNCT of Delhi)
PETITION FOR GRANT OF SUCCESSION
CERTIFICATE UNDER SECTION 372 OF THE INDIAN
SUCCESSION ACT, 1925
1. Date of Institution of Petition : 01.03.2021
2. Date of Judgment : 01.08.2023
3. Decision : Petition Allowed
JUDGMENT
1. Vide this judgment, this Court shall dispose off the petition filed by petitioners for grant of succession certificate in respect of PPF account no.10628752295 with State Bank of India, Mehrauli Branch in the name of Late Sh. Ashok Kumar Gupta.
2. In the petition, it is inter-alia pleaded that petitioner no.1 is the wife, petitioner no.2 is the son and petitioner no.3 is the daughter of the deceased late Sh. Ashok Kumar Gupta, who expired on 28.02.2019; apart from petitioners, there is no other surviving legal heir of the deceased; the deceased was ordinarily residing within the territorial jurisdiction of this Court; and there is no legal impediment in the grant of succession certificate in favour of the petitioners.
3. Perusal of the record reflects that notice of this petition was given to the general public by way of publication in the newspaper "Veer Arjun" on 07.04.2021. In response to the notice, no person from the general public came forward to offer any objection qua grant of succession certificate to the petitioners.
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4. During the summary proceedings conducted as per Section 373 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, five persons were examined in the form of PW-1 i.e. Smt. Raj Rani, PW-2 i.e. Sh. Ankit Gupta, PW-3 i.e. Ms. Priyanka Gupta, PW-4 i.e. Sh. Prahlad Singh, Junior Associate, State Bank of India, Main Market Mehrauli, New Delhi and RW-1 i.e. Sh. Rajesh Shamra, Patwari, SDM, Saket, New Delhi.
5. PW-1 Smt. Raj Rani filed her affidavit of evidence in the form of Ex.PW1/A, wherein she reiterated the contents of the petition and relied upon documents Ex.PW1/1(OSR) i.e. death certificate of deceased, Ex.PW1/2(OSR) i.e. aadhar card of the deceased, Ex.PW1/4(OSR) i.e. surviving member certificate, Ex.PW1/5(colly)(OSR) i.e. bank passbook of deceased and Ex.PW1/6(OSR) i.e. aadhar card of petitioner.
6. PW-2 and PW-3 stated that they had no objection to grant of succession certificate, in respect of debts and securities of deceased late Sh. Ashok Kumar Gupta, in favour of the petitioner no.1, Smt. Raj Rani. Copy of their aadhar cards were exhibited as Ex.PW2/1(OSR) and Ex.PW3/1(OSR) respectively.
7. PW-4 Sh. Prahlad Singh, who appeared on behalf of State Bank of India, Main Market Mehrauli, brought the record of account statement of PPF account bearing no. 10628752295 in the name of late Sh. Ashok Kumar Gupta having balance amount of Rs. 8,19,028.62/- as on 31.05.2023. The same was exhibited as PW4/A (colly).
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8. RW-1 Sh. Rajesh Sharma, who appeared on behalf of respondent no.1 filed report regarding the legal heirs of deceased namely Late Sh. Ashok Kumar Gupta as per which he left behind three legal heirs namely, Smt. Raj Rani (wife), Sh. Ankit Gupta (son) and Smt. Priyanka Gupta (daughter). The same was exhibited as Ex.RW1/1(colly).
9. I have heard the submissions made by Ld. Counsel for the petitioners, perused the record and gone through the relevant provisions of law.
10. The testimony of PW-1 to PW-3 and RW-1 prove that deceased Late Sh. Ashok Kumar Gupta expired on 28.02.2019 and petitioners are his only known surviving legal heirs. Testimony of PW-4 proves that PPF account bearing no. 10628752295 in the name of late Sh. Ashok Kumar Gupta having balance amount of Rs. 8,19,028.62/- as on 31.05.2023, existed with State Bank of India, Main Market Mehrauli Branch, New Delhi. Petitioner no.2 and 3 have no objection to issuance of succession certificate in favour of the petitioner no.1. No one else has come forward to oppose this succession petition despite publication in newspaper.
11. In light of the facts and circumstances and on the basis of material placed on record, petitioner no.1 is entitled to the succession certificate and there exists no impediment in grant of succession certificate to petitioner no.1. Thus, present petition qua the grant of succession certificate in respect of PPF account 4 of 5 SC No. 41/2021 Smt. Raj Rani & Ors.. v. State (GNCT of Delhi) bearing no. 10628752295 in the name of late Sh. Ashok Kumar Gupta having balance amount of Rs. 8,19,028.62/- (Rupees Eight Lakhs Nineteen Thousand Twenty-eight and Sixty-two Paisa only) as on 31.05.2023, existing with State Bank of India, Main Market Mehrauli Branch, New Delhi, is hereby allowed.
12. Accordingly, succession certificate be issued in favour of petitioner no.1, upon filing of requisite court fees and indemnity bond by petitioner no.1. Being class-I legal heir of the deceased, and in view of no-objection of the other legal heirs, petitioner no.1 is exempted from furnishing surety bond.
13. The succession certificate shall be considered only as an entitlement of petitioner no.1 to receive the amount of aforesaid PPF account (with up-to date interest) from State Bank of India, Main Market Mehrauli Branch, New Delhi. The succession certificate shall not be considered as a direction as such to abovesaid bank to release the amount of aforesaid account to petitioner no.1, and it shall be competent to seek compliance of formalities, if any, by petitioner no.1 for securing release of the amount of abovesaid account, as per rules.
14. File be consigned to record room after due Digitally compliance. NEHA signed by NEHA PRIYA Date:
PRIYA 2023.08.01
16:31:26
+0530
Announced in the open Court (NEHA PRIYA)
on 01.08.2023 ACJ-CCJ-ARC/South,
Saket Court/Delhi
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