Section 370 of the Indian Succession Act does not cover bank lockers within its ambit for the issuance of a succession certificate.

JUDGMENT :

Sharad Kumar Sharma, J.

The present appeal from order under Section 384 of the Indian Succession Act, which has been preferred by the plaintiff/appellant, is as against the impugned judgment dated 24.09.2019, as it was rendered by the court of 4th Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division), Dehradun, in Miscellaneous Case No.180 of 2019, “Smt. Mitali Shah Vs. Smt. Shafali Shah and another”, by virtue of which, in an ex parte proceeding, which were held before the court below, on the appellant’s application under Section 370 of the Indian Succession Act, was rejected.

2. If the impugned judgment is taken into consideration, in fact the application, which was preferred by the present appellant before the learned court below, it was to the effect that she has invoked Section 370 of the Act, for the purposes of seeking a succession certificate in order to operate the lockers of Late Smt. Nirmala Shah @ Nalini Shah, and that of Late Mr. Chiranji Lal Shah, which was standing in the State Bank Branch, of District Dehradun.

3. Primarily by the impugned order dated 24.09.2019, the Court has rejected the application, after considering the no objections taken by the respondent in their application, being Paper No.15(b) (2), and while making reference to the judicial precedents relied by the learned court below while taking into consideration the ratio laid down by the Chhattisgarh High Court as reported in AIR (2007) Chhattisgarh 36, “Vimla Devi Vs. Shobha Walia and others”, as well as considering the ratio laid down by the Calcutta High Court in a judgment reported in 1982 AIR Calcutta (92), “State Bank of India Vs. Netai Chand Poral”, it had rather laid down, that so far as the provisions contained under Chapter 10 of the Succession Act, is concerned, since Section 370 to be read with 372 of the Act, which contemplates entertainment of the application for the grant of the succession certificate in relation to the assets of the deceased, which is being sought to be succeeded, there are certain exceptions, which are self contained as has been carved out under Section 370 of the Act, the restrictions of the grant of the succession certificate in relation to the properties, which are covered by sub-section (2) of Section 370 of the Act, its only in those eventualities part 10 of the Succession Act of 1925, would be attracted. The relevant paragraph no.6, of the judgment is extracted hereunder:-

“6. The decision relied on by the learned Judge as also by the opposite party before us is also not to the point. There a lady died during the Kumbhamela tragedy and the ornaments found on her body were taken possession of by the District Authorities. On an application for the grant of succession certificate in respect of the same it was held that the refund of the ornaments became an obligation on the authorities to hand over the same or the value thereof to the rightful claimant and that for such a liability an application for succession certificate could be asked for and granted. We are, however, unable to agree to such a broad proposition that any liability owing from one person to another whether in cash or in kind, secured or unsecured, whether ascertained or ascertainable, arising out of any obligation, is a debt. In the particular case however the facts also were different in so far as it was not the deceased who had kept the ornaments with the District Authorities but that the District Authorities themselves collected the ornaments on their own and as such incurred the liability to refund the same to the rightful claimant. This aspect of the matter distinguishes the case from the facts of the case before us. Here the deceased Juthikabala had herself deposited the articles with this Bank for safe custody she had the option to go and collect it at any time she liked. The Bank was merely a custodian of the same. In ordinary parlance debt means a sum certain due from one person called the debtor to another called the creditor. In Stroud's J