4 Simple Steps on How to Make a Death Certificate in Nepal

As sad as it is, we all have to die someday. But death is not the end of us. Both ritualistically and legally, until we complete a few more processes, death will not be the end of us. If we are famous, as long as we are remembered, things will not end with us.

There are a lot of processes when it comes to rituals but as for the legal aspect, as soon as we register our death certificate and close the accounts related to us, it will end.

Now as per the definition, a death certificate is a government document that serves as proof of legal proof of our death. Being the proof of death, a lot of people think that this is a useless document.

1. Need/Use of a Death Certificate

So death certificate is necessary, but a lot of you may not know the areas where it is necessary. In general, the Death certificate is necessary for three areas of life – financial, governmental, and familial. Following is the list of why death certificates are used in each area.

Financial

To close financial accounts of the deceased
To aid in the property distribution
Conserve the property

Governmental

To aid in the census
To maintain the history of the deceased person
To get the right to reveal the name of the deceased in the statistics

Familial

To aid in the inheritance of the property
To aid in the conservation of the property

Depending on the circumstances, different uses can come from the death certificate But unless there are some complications, these are all the generic uses of the Death certificate.

2. What documents you need to register a death in Nepal?

Once you know the uses of a death certificate, there are a few eligibility criteria that need to be fulfilled in order to make the death certificate of a person. But the base remains that the person should be dead.

Eligibility

The person should be Nepali Citizen
The person should be proven dead
If the person is missing with no hope of being found
- 7 years for adults over 18 years years of age
- 5 years for teens between 13 and 18 years of age
- 2 years for children below 13 years of age
On the basis of circumstantial evidence of death

Documents Required

Citizenship of the deceased
The witness who is willing to testify on behalf of the deceased
Proof of death
- Hospital records
- Eye witness
- Postmortem
- Police case files
- Circumstantial evidence
- Case of a missing file ( if the person has been missing for a long period of time )
Time, location, and date of passing
- In case of uncertain circumstances, the time date, and location when the person is pronounced dead

As you see, being eligible to get a death certificate on the behalf of the deceased person is not as simple as it sounds. However, unlike this, the process is rather simple – if you exclude the homicide, missing file, and suicide cases.

3. Core Process of Making a Death Certificate

Unlike all complicated criteria and documents, one has to prepare for registering a death certificate, the core process is simpler. It can be divided into three steps which are:

Step 1 – A letter of witness is prepared which bears the signature of all those who are willing to act as the witness for the death of a said person
Step 2 – Fill up the application for the certificate
Step 3 – Present all the documents required (including the case files if needed) for verification
Step 4 – Receive the Death Certificate of the deceased one.

While this is being said, there are a few procedures left after the certificate has been made which must not be omitted. They are :

Make a relationship identity with the deceased person
Closing of financial accounts and deleting/Updating the existing data of the deceased person

Once all of this is done, the person is finally said to have been deceased as per the law, and the legal/Governmental process regarding the said person ends

4. Time and Fees

As with all of the governmental procedures, one has to pay some remuneration for registering the death certificate. However, in this case, you don’t just pay for the death certificate but for other things as well. The amounts you have to pay in order to complete the process of making a death certificate are :

How much does it cost to register a death in Nepal?

Till 35th day from the time of passing: NIl
After 35th day: Rs 70
Relationship Certificate: Rs 200
Proof of right to property: Rs 2000

With all of these fees paid, you might also have to pay some more if the said person died because of unnatural circumstances and the cops are involved to release the case file. In this case, the amount you will have to pay will entirely depend on the severity and nature of the case.

How much time does it take to register a death in Nepal?

As for the time, in ideal circumstances, the whole process can be completed within a few hours. However if a document is found to be missing or if the death of the said person involves police, the time taken depends entirely on how quickly the circumstances/issues are resolved.

Final Words

Death is a heavy subject for us but as living beings, we have to die eventually. However ever since we have had laws and governmental procedures, death has become one more thing in addition to emotional and social events.

For that we need to record the death as it will help the government to analyze and make data that will help us- the living and our future generations to continue smoothly. So although it is hard, emotional, and even devastating to make a death certificate, it is something that we should do.

Online Death Registration in Nepal

You can get the forms to register Death Certificate on the link here.

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