If the deceased has left a will in favour of a relative, then the relative will have to get this certificate to claim those benefits.
In the absence of a will, the property of a deceased goes to Class I heirs (Son, daughter, widow, mother etc) If there is no Class I heir, it will go to Class II heirs (father, brother, sister, brother's son, sister's son etc). When there's no Class II heir either, then the property will go to Agnates. Those relatives of the deceased may be related by blood or adoption. They should get this certificate in order to claim the benefits

Apply In-Person

1. Applicant can approach respective Block / Circle / municipality office to apply in person.
2. Application form can be obtained from the office while applicant visits OR Applicant shall write an application on an A4 paper. Please affix the advised stamp on the paper as per requirement.
3. Please go to the respective office and submit the completed application form along with the required document to the respective authorities.
4. Authorities after receiving the application will check the attached documents and details. If all are in place, they will make entries in their registry and provide you record number for reference.
5. Thasildhar OR respective authority will assign the application for further processing to the Village Administrative Officer (VAO) and MRO OR the authorities concerned.
6. There will be a ground level verification and scrutiny of the documents and details will be made against the details provided by the above authorities.
7. Once the verification is over, these officials will submit their report to the Thaasildhaar OR respective authority to decide and issue the Certificate to the applicant with the names of all legal heirs of the deceased.
8. Applicant will get the certificate after due verification
   

Note : In some cases applicant might be asked to contact a lawyer in District Civil Court to get it done.

Note:

• In some states applicant shall approach over the counter services like CSC centres/e-seva etc to apply.
• In some states applicant shall apply using the respective state department online portal.
• Find the contact details and application form from the respective state portal procedures by using the link provided under respective states below.

Please select the state name for respective State Procedure.
Andaman and Nicobar – Andhra Pradesh – Arunachal Pradesh – Assam – Bihar – Chandigarh – Chhattisgarh – Daman and Diu – Goa - Gujarat – Haryana – Pradesh – and Kashmir – Jharkhand – Karnataka – Kerala – Lakshadweep – Madhya Pradesh – Maharashtra – Manipur – Meghalaya – Mizoram – Nagaland – New Delhi – Odisha – Puducherry – Punjab – Rajasthan – Sikkim – Tamil Nadu – Telangana – Tripura – Uttar Pradesh – Uttarakhand – West Bengal

• Application form.
• Your identity documents such as Permanent Account Number (PAN), Ration card, Aadhar card
• Ration card, EPIC Card
• Aadhaar card
• Date of birth certificate such as 10th Standard certificate
• Death Certificate (of the deceased)
• Proof of residence such as Voters card, Electricity Bill, Telephone Bill
• Passport size photographs
• A Gazette officer attested and duly signed bond paper on the pro forma.

Note:

• All original and copy of original with self attestation as advised by respective authorities to be submitted as per requirement.
• Apart from the above documents authorities may ask to submit additional information or documents. Please provide them for processing.

Department of AR & PG,
Sardar Patel Bhawan,
Parliament Street, New Delhi - 110 001.
Phone: (011) 23360208
Fax: 011-23360352
Email: jaya.dubey@nic.in
Link for Contacts: Link for details

Surviving family members (a relative) of the deceased are eligible.

• Authorities shall provide further information. Please pay as authorities quote.
• Please pay for the required amount for stamp (as affixed on the application)

The validity period of this certificate has been enhanced to life long as per GO

Please attach documents which can be used by people eg. links .

Please attach sample completed documents which would help other people .    

If your application is fair and complete, the processing time will be one week to one month.

Videos explaining the procedure or to fill the applications.
Attach videos using the following tag <&video type="website">video ID|width|height<&/video&> from external websites.
Please remove the "&" inside the tags during implementation.
Website = allocine, blip, dailymotion, facebook, gametrailers, googlevideo, html5, metacafe, myspace, revver, 
sevenload, viddler, vimeo, youku, youtube
width = 560, height = 340, Video ID = Can be obtained from the URL of webpage where the video is displayed.
e.g In the following url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0US7oR_t3M" Video ID is "Y0US7oR_t3M". 

• You can obtain a Family Member Certificate by applying in person.
• You should have valid documents such as ration card, pan card, voter id card.
• You should manually complete the application forms and submit in the respective office of your area.
• The applicant should submit passport size photographs with the application.

The following information is required to complete the application form.

• Full Name of the applicant
• Other family member’s names (who are alive)
• Applicants Date of birth
• Relationship to the applicant
• Every family member’s date of birth
• Every applicant’s occupation
• Passport Size photographs of the applicant
• Gazetted officer should duly attest the application form
• Gazetted officer should duly sign on the bond paper with the proper pro forma.
• Death certificate photo copy of the deceased
• photo copy of the completed application

• Surviving family members of the deceased are often required to produce "Certificate for Relatives of Deceased Person" for the purpose of settlement of claims.
• You may get your "Certificate for Surviving Family Members of a Deceased Person" from the concerned authorities in your area.
• If the deceased has left a will in favour of a relative, then the relative will have to get this certificate to claim those benefits.

• Fill the application details correctly without any mistake.
• Details of surviving members of deceased, their age and relationship with the deceased and Purpose for which the certificate is required need to be explained to the authorities.

NOTE : It is a punishable offense to try with fraudulent documents to get this certificate.

Please explain what are other uses of obtaining this document/certificate.
e.g. Birth Certificate can be used as proof of identity.

Place some external links which might help.

More information which might help people.