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Synopsis

The Supreme Court today sought the Ministry of Finance's response in a plea by journalist Sucheta Dalal pertaining to unclaimed money of investors and depositors taken by various regulators and remaining inaccessible to rightful legal heirs.

CJI Chandrachud and Justice Pardiwala's bench noted that while the Ministry of Corporate Affairs had filed a reply, the Finance Ministry had not. 

Accordingly, the bench listed the plea after three weeks.

Supreme Court bench of Justices Abdul Nazeer and JK Maheshwari had issued notice in the plea in August last year.

The plea sought a direction to the Central Government to take appropriate steps, in a time-bound manner, towards creation of a centralized database providing information about bank accounts, insurance, post office funds etc. held by deceased account holders.

It further sought establishment of a procedure for dealing with claims of legal heirs qua bank deposits, insurance, post office funds etc., that eliminates unnecessary litigation.

Dalal sought an urgent direction to ensure that unclaimed funds of the public that get transferred to Government owned funds viz. the Depositor’s Education and Awareness Fund (DEAF), Investor’s Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) and Senior Citizen’s Welfare Fund (SCWF) on the ground that the same were not claimed by the legal heirs /nominees are made available to said legal heirs/nominees by providing information of holders of inoperative/dormant accounts on a centralized online database.

The plea, filed under Article 32, argued that even those banks that do offer the data on deceased account-holders fail to serve the intended purpose qua those legal heirs who are unaware of the very existence of a bank account.

Referring to the already existing time-consuming and cumbersome process that legal heirs have to go through while making claims after the death of an individual, the petition submitted that a centralized database is necessary to ensure that families/heirs/nominees in dire need of funds are not deprived of the same.

Dalal relied on a Circular issued by RBI in June 2005 to the Chairman/CEOs of All Scheduled Commercial Banks emphasizing on the need for simplification of procedure with respect to deceased depositors, stating that the tortuous procedures applicable to the family members of a deceased depositor caused considerable distress to such family members.

Accordingly, the plea sought that banks that are not complying with such Circular issued by RBI qua unclaimed deposits, as well as settlement of claims, should be identified and penalized.

Case Title: Sucheta Dalal vs. Union of India and Ors