Struggling to Claim a Deceased Friend's Last Salary: Legal Hurdles and Seeking Advice

In December 2010, a dear friend of mine passed away with an unknown cause. This dear friend had been working in India for Eneroil Drilling, with the head office in New Delhi. He left India in November 2010 for days off, and his last salary was not paid at that time and still has not been paid to this day. When I started inquiring about this in January 2011 with Eneroil Drilling, they replied that it would be transferred as soon as possible. After waiting several months until around April 2011, I sent another email to Eneroil. Their reply was that the salary would be deducted for unpaid taxes. My relative's last salary was around US$12,000, and about US$8,000 in taxes would be deducted. After discussions and protests regarding this significant deduction, the wife agreed to have this last salary deducted and requested the remaining amount to be sent to her bank account. To this day, Eneroil has not transferred the remaining salary amount to the wife's bank account, citing that Indian Law does not allow them to transfer the salary to the wife's account.

Questions Regarding Salary Deduction and Transfer

My questions are:

1. Is it possible or justified by Indian Tax Law to deduct that much from the salary?
2. Is it also according to Indian Law that a company cannot transfer the salary to the wife's bank account?

Any solutions or suggestions on how to have Eneroil transfer the last salary to the wife's account?

Regards.

There are some grey areas in your summary of the situation.

1. Did your friend pass away while away from India?
2. Was his death certificate from the authorized/competent state authorities in his country passed on to Eneroil? If not, then Eneroil may not be able to do any fund transfer to the wife's bank account. Even if yes, they would also need to be provided with some legal document proving that she is your friend's wife — since such a transfer can only be done to the legal heirs, unless there's a clear written instruction to Eneroil from your friend before his passing.

One thing I can suggest is to please contact the local Indian Embassy in her country. This could help the wife coordinate things better, rather than her being in another country and interacting with Eneroil in New Delhi.

Regards,
TS

My friend passed away in his home country, which is Indonesia. I think his death certificate was never passed on to Eneroil. I might suggest to my friend to contact the Indian embassy in Jakarta and inquire for any information. Thanks anyway for your reply and suggestions.

Regards

The Jakarta Indian Embassy would be your best bet in the given situation. They would be able to guide you regarding the documents needed for a speedy transfer of the pending dues and the possible tax issues. Also, I think your friend's marriage certificate would also be needed. In these days when anything can be claimed by anyone, documentary evidence for such legal issues is bound to be asked.

All the best.

Regards,
TS