On April 4, 2023, a local court in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, declared Abdul Rashid Wani legally dead, nearly 29 years after his disappearance from Indian Army custody. Special mobile magistrate Massarat Jabeen issued a 13-page order in response to a civil suit filed by Wani's wife, Farida Shabnum, and their two sons, Junaid and Arsalan Rashid Wani. The court concluded that Wani was taken into custody by the 2/8 Gorkha Rifles on July 7, 1997, and has not been heard from since, despite efforts to locate him through judicial inquiries and police investigations. The ruling stated that Wani's absence for over seven years justified the legal presumption of death. The court directed the Registrar of Births and Deaths at the Srinagar Municipal Corporation to issue a death certificate for Wani in favor of his family, thereby providing them with the legal acknowledgment they sought.