Court No. - 40

Case :- WRIT - C No. - 29226 of 2021

Petitioner :- Atul Kumar

Respondent :- Regional Manager, State Bank Of India And 2

Others

Counsel for Petitioner :- Pankaj Kumar Govil

Counsel for Respondent :- Satish Chaturvedi

Hon'ble Ashwani Kumar Mishra,J.

Hon'ble Vikram D. Chauhan,J.

Petitioner is aggrieved by a communication of the respondent

Bank whereby he has been called upon to provide succession

certificate for release of the amount consequent upon death of

petitioner's mother. It is admitted that petitioner is the nominee

in the form filled by the deceased account holder.

It is urged on behalf of the petitioner that there is no

requirement of providing succession certificate because

petitioner is the only son of the deceased and there is no other

claimant.

Taking note of the above contention, we called upon the learned

counsel for the Bank to obtain instructions. Sri Pankaj

Srivastava has produced before the Court the Government

Saving Promotion General Rules, 2018, framed in exercise of

power under Section 15 of the Government Saving Promotion

Act, 1873. Attention of the Court has been invited to Rule 15

(6) (ii) to justify their action.

Rule 15(6) in its entirety reads as under :-

"15(6). If a depositor dies and there is no nomination in force at the time

of his death, and probate of his will or letters of administration of his

estate or a succession certificate as granted in the Indian Succession Act,

1925 (39 of 1925) is not produced within six months from the death of the

depositor to the authorized officer of the Accounts Office where the

account stands, then,-

(i) if the eligible amount in the account does not exceed Rs. 5 lakh, the

authorized officer of the Accounts Office or the authority specified by the

Institution to which the Accounts Office belongs, may pay the same to any

person appearing to him as the rightful claimant and to his satisfaction to

be entitled to receive the amount or to administer the estate of the

deceased, on an application in Form-11 accompanied by the following

documents; namely:-

(a) Death certificate,

(b) Pass Book or deposit receipt/statement of account in original,

(c) Affidavit in Form-13,

(d) Letter of disclaimer in Form-14,

(e) Bond of Indemnity in Form-15,

(ii) if the eligible amount in a deceased account is above Rs. 5 lakh, the

amount shall be paid by the Accounts office to the claimant on submission

of 'Succession Certificate' issued by the court along with the following

documents; namely:-

(a) Claim form,

(b) Pass Book or deposit receipt or statement of account in original,

(c) Death certificate of the account holder."

The provision relied upon by the respondent would not apply

inasmuch as Sub-Rule 6 would apply in a case where there is no

nomination in force. Admittedly in the facts of the present case,

nomination does exist. Once that be so, the requirement

stipulated in Sub-clause (ii) of Rule 15(6) would have no

applicability. We rather find that the claim of the petitioner

would be covered by Rule 15 (2), which reads as under :-

"15(2). If a nomination made under rule 14 is in force at the time of death

of the depositor of a single account or all the depositors of a joint

account, the nominee may make an application in Form 11 to the

Accounts Office for payment of the eligible balance and the application

shall be accompanied by the proof of death of the depositor, and where

any other nominee has also died, the proof of death of such nominee."

The above Rule is otherwise in consonance with Section 45ZA

of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, which reads as under :-

"45ZA. Nomination for payment of depositors' money.-

(1) Where a deposit is held by a banking company to the credit of one or

more persons, the depositor or, as the case may be, all the depositors

together may nominate, in the prescribed manner, one person to whom in

the event of the death of the sole depositor or the death of