IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Revision No.1959 of 2000 Date of decision: 24.08.2009 Bibi Chhoto alias Swaran Kaur …Petitioner versus The General Public ...Respondent CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE K.KANNAN Present: Mr.M.L.Saggar, Senior Advocate with Mr. APS Sidhu,Advocate,for the petitioner. None for the respondent. ---- 1. Whether reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? Yes. 2. To be referred to the reporters or not ? Yes. 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the digest ? Yes. K.Kannan, J.(Oral) 1. The revision is against the concurrent orders of dismissal of application filed under Section 372 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 for grant of succession certificate in respect of debts and securities of Amar Singh son of Gurdial Singh. The learned counsel for the petitioner would state that the security in the name of Amar Singh was in his capacity as a mahant of Nirmal Dera and on his death on 13.04.1993, Bibi Chhoto alias Swaran Kaur had succeeded as a mahant of Nirmal Dera in a congregation held on 29.04.1993. The details of the ceremony had been set forth in the petition. The application was a non-contentious one and all that the Court was required to see whether there was any proof of the fact that there had been a proper appointment of the applicant as the mahant of the Dera and that the securities outstanding Civil Revision No.1959 of 2000 - 2 - were only due to deceased Amar Singh in his capacity as such mahant. 2. The Court below had dismissed the application on the ground that the deceased was a bachelor and the legal heirs alone could apply for issuance of succession certificate. The succession certificate has a bearing to what the person succeeds to. If the outstanding were due to a deceased person in his capacity as a mahant, the successor in office of the mahant cannot be a legal heir as per the provisions of the Hindu Succession Act. Here in this case, succession is not to the personal effect or the succession to an individual dehors the status as a mahant. The succession is to the office of the mahant and such a successor is entitled to recover every outstanding and debts due to the mahant in his capacity as such. 3. The dismissal of the petition is erroneous and the civil revision is allowed granting the issuance of a certificate in the manner as sought for. The Court shall recover appropriate court fee for issuance of a certificate if it has not already been done. 4. The order of the Courts below is set aside and the revision is allowed, as above. (K.KANNAN) JUDGE 24.08.2009 sanjeev