HC: Bank can’t bar surviving owner

Kochi: If one of the owners of a bank locker under joint ownership dies, the bank cannot prevent the surviving owner from operating the locker, a high court bench of Justice Shaji P Chaly ruled after considering a petition by Lalithambika Sasidharan Pillai of Ayoor in Kollam and her daughter and son against the Chadayamangalam branch of State Bank of India (SBI).Lalithambika’s husband Sasidharan Pillai had died in July and the death was informed to the bank. However, the bank did not allow her to operate the locker. The bank manager asked her to get necessary proof of legal representation in the form of Probate or Letters of Administration.After considering the plea, the court’s judgment delivered on February 14 said, “In my considered opinion, when the first petitioner and her husband were joint hirers of a locker and they were permitted to operate the locker independently during the lifetime of the husband, the first petitioner is entitled, as of right, to operate the locker, after the death of her husband. It is equally important to note that the first petitioner as well as her husband were permitted to operate the joint locker independent of each other during the lifetime of Sasidharan Pillai, and the same legal position continued after the death of Sasidharan Pillai.”The court also referred to a 1975 judgment by a division bench of the Madras HC (Hepzibah Annathai Rengachari vs R Ananthalakshmi Rangachari), which held that money in either/survivor or joint accounts can be claimed without producing letters of administration.