Whether court should grant succession certificate for operating bank locker after death of holder of locker?
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Generally, banks are insisting on obtaining a succession certificate by the legal heirs in the case of lockers on the death of the holder of the locker. But succession certificate cannot be granted as the locker held by the deceased cannot be treated as a debt.The bank also is not expected to put the legal heirs in a difficult situation to spend more money in obtaining the succession certificate or some other certificate to safeguard their liability.Therefore, it is always desirable that the bank should adopt a procedure in obtaining a nomination at the time of opening of a locker by any person. In case of death of the person holding the locker, the bank may allow the nominee to operate the locker provided an inventory of the articles kept in the bank's safe custody and also obtain a guarantee from the said nominee to produce the articles in the event of any claim by any other person. If this simple procedure is implemented, it will save the parties from spending huge amounts by approaching the courts as courts have consistently held that no sucession certificate can be granted under section 370 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, to operate a locker as the locker cannot be treated as a debt.
Andhra High Court
Venugopal Loya And Ors. vs Vijayalakshmi Bung And Anr. on 16 March, 1990
Equivalent citations: 1991 71 CompCas 393 AP,.1991 (I)vol.15. All India Banking Law
Bench: G R Rao
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