ORDER

The petitioner aged about 80 years, wife of late Laxman Singh has filed the present Writ Petition seeking direction to the respondent/Bank to operate the bank account No.452802010041568.

2. The petitioner is account holder of Saving Bank Account No.452802010041568 with the respondent/Bank. Earlier, it was joint account with her husband, who was also nominee of the said account.

After the demise of the husband, the petitioner is sole account holder of the said bank account. There was Fixed Deposit of Rs.57,56,965/- which was matured and amount was credited in the bank account. After the demise of husband, one daughter out of five daughters sent a legal notice to the bank that the petitioner be restrained to operate the bank account and not to disburse the FDR amount credited in the Saving Account.

According to the petitioner without any notice to the petitioner, the Bank Manager frozen the bank account and she is not permitted to withdraw any amount. The petitioner sent a notice and filed present Writ Petition before this Court.

3. After the notice, the bank filed reply by submitting that the saving account was opened as operational under the head of '' either or survivor'' and not '' jointly'' therefore, the instructions issued by the Head Officer in the matter of settlement of the death claim if either of the account holder dies before the maturity of the deposit then legal heir of deceased as well as the survivor will get the outstanding amount. In this case, the husband of the petitioner died before the maturity of the fixed deposit, therefore, the petitioner alone is not entitled to withdraw the amount which is credited in the saving account after maturity of the fixed deposit. It is further submitted that four daughters of the petitioner have already filed Succession Case under Section 372 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 in which the petitioner is arrayed as defendant No.3. It is further submitted that an application under Order 39 Rule 1 and 2 of C.P.C. is still pending for consideration before the Civil Judge, hence, in view of aforesaid dispute, the bank has taken decision not to permit to the petitioner to operate the bank account.

4. During pendency of this Writ Petition, the Bank was directed to produce the original copy of FDR. The amount of Rs.52,00,000/- was deposited for the period of one year on 06.12.2019 and the maturity date was 06.12.2020 and amount of Rs.55,62,182/- was payable after maturity with interest of the FDR on '' either or survivor''. There is another fixed deposit of Rs.6,00,000/- in the joint name of the petitioner and her husband which matured on 30.10.2020 and maturity amount is Rs.6,91,704/-.

5. The respondent/Bank is relying Annexure R/1 which relates to the settlement of claims in various types of operational instructions. The petitioner's falls in the category of deposit without nomination and the relevant instructions is reproduced below:-

Account in the name of Operational Instructions Situation What is to be done A Self A dies Outstanding will be payable to the legal heirs or any one of them mandated by all of the legal heirs.

A,B Either or Survivor A dies Outstanding will be payable to B (before maturity legal heir or A & B and after maturity payable to B) A,B Either or Survivor B dies Outstanding will be payable to A (before maturity legal heir or A & B and after maturity payable to A) A,B Either or Survivor A & B dies Jointly payable to legal heirs of A & B ( or any of them mandated by all the legal heirs) A,B Jointly A dies Jointly payable to legal heirs of A (or any of them mandated by all the legal heirs) A,B Jointly B dies Jointly payable to A and legal heirs of the B (or any one of them mandated by all the legal heirs) A,B Jointly A & B Jointly payable to legal heirs of A & B (or any of them mandated by all the

6. As stated by the Bank, the account of the petitioner is operational on instruction '' either or survivor'' and as per example if 'A' dies the outstandi