Legal Question in Banking Law in India

Clarity id being requested regarding Bank locker laws. I presume that the Law varies from bank to bank. In this case the bankers are Punjab & Sind Bank.

The factual situations are as under mentioned.

The hirer of locker, mother of five sons and a daughter, nominates the last child, son, as the nominee of the locker account. The hirer expires in the year 2004 and the bank is informed of the demise of the hirer. Thereafter the nominee is unable to operate the account as the locker key is lost in reality and the loss of locker key is informed to the bank and a request is made to the bank for breaking open the locker, by the nominee and the bank informs the nominee of the expenditure for the process. But due to reasons unknown the nominee does not pursues further with the lock breakup. About three years of the lapsed rental dues for the locker are paid by the nominee up to date as on June 2011 and in July 2011 files a written request with the bank for transfer of the locker in his name. Subsequently further locker rental dues are paid in November 2011 by the nominee and accepted by the bank in his name as prevalent in the stamped for acceptance counterfoil of the bank�s pay-in slip. In October 2012 the nominee expires of natural causes and the subsequent locker rentals due in November 2012 are paid by his widow in January 2013 and is again accepted by the bank in the name of the deceased nominee. Incidentally the locker register page as viewed sometime in late January 2013 displays the name of the mother erased with a whitener and the nominee�s name written over the space above this erasure. After the death of the nominee the locker key is found by his widow while searching for some old items at home. Genuinely this is a true case of lost and found. Now when the widow of the deceased nominee with two minor children, approaches the bank as the legal heir to operate the locker the bank manager denies her the access and informs that only the legal heirs can have access to the above locker with a succession certificate from Court of Law.

Incidentally the mother lost one of her sons in 1988, whose death somehow went unregistered and his death certificate does not exist. Incidentally the mother who also owned a self acquired immovable property, which was gifted to four, out of her five grand children, in her will, duly registered with the Registrar�s Office in the year 2000, also very clearly mentions the demise of her this above child (whose death has gone unregistered) as having died without any issues. Another of her sons expired sometime in the year 2010. Of her six legal heirs, three are alive and three are no more, as of now. As the legal heir ship of the father who expired in 1981, would also stand good for the mothers legal heirs, no separate legal heir ship of the mother has been procured. There is no dispute among the surviving legal heirs and also there was no dispute either with or among the deceased legal heirs, as the mother had nominated the youngest son to her locker account, while orally willing the locker to her youngest son.

What is actually being sought is an easy way to operate the locker and close the pending matter, preferable if the widow of the deceased nominee could operate the locker account, as the succession certificate would be a long and cumbersome process. Hence seeking answers to the following questions.

1. Is the nominee eligible to transfer the locker to his name?

2. If eligible for name transfer, has the bank lapsed by not executing the same in spite of having received a letter for locker name transfer?

3. By accepting the locker rentals in his name in the rental pay-in slips, in the years 2011 and 2013, has the bank actually transferred the locker to the nominee�s name?

4. Has actual locker name transfer executed by the bank, as the locker register page shows the name of the hirer erased with whitener and the nominee�s name written over the space above this erasure?

5. If the bank has transferred the locker in the nominee�s name, has the bank erred in doing so?

6. If the bank has transferred the locker in the nominee�s name, does it make him the owner of the locker account, while his widow becoming eligible to operate the locker as his legal heir.

7. Does the demise of the son with no offspring (whose death has gone unregistered) prior to the mother�s demise, disqualify him from being her legal heir?

8. Does the mention of demise of the son (whose death has gone unregistered) in the mother�s registered will, provide sufficient proof to authenticate his unregistered death?

The bank with an indifferent attitude has not cooperated at all, and never ever acknowledged the letters given by the widow of the nominee to operate the locker, and after about more than 6 months delay, the bank was finally sent with a letter by registered post with enclosed copies of earlier unacknowledged letters as enclosures, with copies of the same, further sent to their respective head and regional offices with a simultaneous complaint put forth with the Banking Ombudsman. Officially now the bank branch has replied that the widow of the nominee is not an eligible party to operate the locker, as per law. Only the legal heirs will be eligible to operate the locker and that too only with a succession certificate.

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