Now, get succession certificate without paying court fee

When Yallpragada Manjulata Rao applied for a succession certificate to a flat owned by her husband in a Juhu Cooperative Housing Society (CHS) after the husband’s death, she was slapped a court fees of Rs 75,000.

However, after a recent order of the Taxing Master of the Bombay High Court, the staggering fees has been reduced to zero.

In a landmark order, the HC Taxing Master ruled that legal heirs seeking transfer of a flat in a CHS after the death of the owner need to pay court fees on the value of the share in society and not the market value of the flat. In a CHS, each flat owner is issued five shares valued at Rs50 each.

This order will benefit persons applying for a succession certificate for a flat in a CHS as till now, they were required to pay a court fees calculated as a percentage of the market value of the flat. The court fees for a succession certificate calculated under the Indian Succession Act is zero for an asset valued less than Rs1000. For an asset valued between Rs 1,001 and Rs 50, 000, it is 2 per cent, for Rs 50,001 to Rs 2lakh it is 4 per cent, between 2lakh and Rs3 lakh it is 6 per cent and above Rs3 lakh it stands at 7.5 per cent with a maximum ceiling of Rs 75,000.

Rao’s flat, which was has a market value of Rs40 lakh, invited a court fees of Rs 75,000. Rao’s lawyers, Suren Shety and AK Menon, challenged the court fees levied citing Rule 23 of the Maharashtra Cooperatives Societies Rules, which states that where a person is allotted a share by a society the payment required to be made shall not exceed the face value of the share. 

In Rao’s case there was exchange of money. Only the shares were being transferred to Rao after her husband Yallapragada Shankar Rao’s death. Therefore, the court fees would be charged on the face value of the shares, which added up to Rs250. The value of the shares being less than Rs1,000, the issue of succession certificate attracted zero court fees.