A succession certificate can be granted for a missing person presumed dead after seven years of absence under S.372 and S.108 without a declared date of death.

1. Admit. The respondents, who are present in - person in the Court, waive service. The appeal is forthwith taken up for hearing and final disposal, by consent and on the request of both the parties.

2. Affidavits of the respondents, i.e. two sons and one daughter of the missing person are produced. Learned counsel for the appellant / wife of the missing person submits that the respondents / children are present in the Court and they are supporting the case of the appellant and their affidavits be taken on record. The affidavits are taken on record.

3. In this appeal, Judgment and Order dated 09/02/2015, passed by Civil Judge, Junior Division, Khalapur, rejecting the application filed under S.372 of the Indian Succession Act (for short, "the Act") is challenged by the appellant, i.e. the mother of the respondents.

4. The appellant / applicant had filed Miscellaneous Civil Application No.25 of 2012 before the Civil Judge, Junior Division, Khalapur for granting succession certificate in respect of securities and properties belonging to her husband Shrikant Vishnupant Revale, who went missing since April, 2002 and was not seen or heard of for more than seven years. She claimed that she being the wife of Shrikant is entitled to claim the amounts invested by her husband in fixed deposits or in other various schemes, as specified in her application. An unfortunate fact in the said application, as per the case of the appellant, is that her husband is missing since 24/04/2002. On that day, he went out of the house and thereafter did not return. The appellant and her children tried their level best to get the whereabouts of Shrikant Vishnupant Revale. However, they could not succeed. Thereafter, respondent No.1 Shirish gave information to Rasayani Police Station about the missing of his father. The police also tried their best to trace the appellant's husband. The appellant and her children also issued publication in a newspaper about the missing of Shrikant Vishnupant Revale. However, neither Shrikant Vishnupant Revale returned nor his whereabouts were detected. Thereafter, from the concerned Police Station the appellant obtained certificate that though the police of Rasayani Police Station has investigated into the missing person's report registered as 7/2002, he was not found till then. On the basis of this document and as nothing was heard about Shrikant Vishnupant Revale, the appellant submitted an application under S.372 of the Act for heirship. The respondents, who are the children of the appellant, did not contest the said application. In the said application, publication was issued. However, Shrikant Vishnupant Revale did not come before the Court. Neither anyone contested the claim of heirship nor contended that Shrikant Vishnupant Revale is alive.

5. The application was rejected by the Civil Judge mainly on the ground that it has no power to grant heirship certificate in the absence of specific averment in respect of the date of death of the missing person. As per sub-section (1) of S.372 of the Act, the date of death of the deceased is required to be mentioned in the application. The appellant and the respondents are not aware of the date of death of their father, who went missing. The application was filed mainly under S.108 of the Evidence Act . S.108 reads thus:
"108. Burden of proving that person is alive who has not been heard of for seven years. -
[Provided that when] the question is whether a man is alive or dead, and it is proved that he has not been heard of for seven years by those who would naturally have heard of him if he had been alive, the burden of proving that he is alive is [shifted to]