Who Counts as a Legal Heir in India, and Why Getting It Wrong Stalls a Share Claim

In a share transmission, every legal heir other than the claimant has to sign an affidavit-cum-NOC. That makes "who are the legal heirs?" the first question, not a detail — and families get it wrong often enough that it is a common reason claims come back.

A legal heir is whoever inherits: under a will if there is one, and otherwise under the personal law that applied to the deceased. India has no single rule.

If there is a will

The people named in the will take what it gives them. A will can be made by anyone competent to do so, and probate is no longer compulsory for share transmission — Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act was omitted with effect from 20 December 2025. The heirs at law still have to be identified, because registrars ask for their NOC in most routes above the simplified thresholds.

Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs

The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 applies. Where a man dies without a will, his property goes first to Class I heirs, who take equally. Class I includes:

• The widow
• Sons and daughters
• The mother
• Certain descendants of a son or daughter who died before him

Note what that means in practice: a father's shares do not pass to the eldest son. They are shared between the widow, every son, every daughter and the mother, in equal parts. Only if there is no Class I heir does the estate go to Class II.

Daughters have equal rights as coparceners in ancestral property since the 2005 amendment, and in Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020) the Supreme Court held that this applies whether or not the father was alive on the date of the amendment.

For a Hindu woman dying intestate, the order is different again, set out separately in the Act.

Muslims

Succession follows Muslim personal law, applied through the Shariat Application Act, 1937. Shares of the estate are fixed proportions for specified relatives — spouse, children, parents and others — with the residue passing to residuary heirs. A Muslim can dispose of only one-third of the estate by will without the consent of the heirs.

Christians, Parsis and others

The Indian Succession Act, 1925 applies. For Christians dying intestate, a widow generally takes one-third with the remaining two-thirds to the lineal descendants, with different shares where there are no descendants. Parsi succession has its own scheme within the same Act. Couples married under the Special Marriage Act are also governed by the Act.

A nominee is not automatically an heir

This is the confusion we see most. A nominee receives the shares from the company, but SEBI's July 2026 framework says plainly that a nominee holds as trustee on behalf of the legal heirs, and the Supreme Court held the same in Shakti Yezdani v. Jayanand Jayant Salgaonkar (2023). The nomination decides who the company deals with, not who owns the shares. Nominee or no nominee.

Nor is a legal heir certificate the same as a succession certificate

A legal heir certificate, issued by a revenue authority, identifies the heirs. A succession certificate, issued by a civil court, authorises someone to collect the deceased's debts and securities. They are used at different points and issued by different authorities. Which one you need.

Why it matters before you file anything

• A missing heir means a missing signature: , and the registrar will return the claim
• An heir who died after the shareholder: is replaced by their own heirs, who each sign
• A minor heir: cannot simply sign an NOC, and needs advice on the guardian's position
• A disputed claim: falls outside SEBI's simplified framework altogether

Personal law is fact-specific, and family situations rarely fit a list neatly. Use this to understand the shape of the question, then have a lawyer confirm the heirs for your particular family before documents are drawn up.