Dear Colleague,
The very word nomination is " to appoint or propose for appointment to an office or place" as per Webster's Dictionary. Here as a fundamental common sense answer is "A person who is alive can nominate his family members to receive certain benefits in the event of his death/ demise" Hence Nomination can only be done by the Member of PF who is live. In short Nomination is a document which can be made only by a member when he is alive.
But if no nomination is done by the member when he was alive, the alternate document acceptable by the EPFO for settlement of PF/ EPS/ EDLI etc is the Legal heirship Certificate issued by the Revenue Department of the Respective State Government. Based on the Legal heirship Certificate the process is done in the absence of Valid Nomination.
Take Care
Dr.P.SIVAKUMAR
Doctor Siva Global HR
Tamil Nadu