The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Union government and the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to file a response on the mechanism available for notifying the legal heirs of deceased persons who have left behind unclaimed deposits in banks, mutual funds and securities depositories.
“These details will be relevant. We know that in some cases, banks contact the legal heirs in case of death of the account holder. The only solution is to update your KYC details with the bank,” a bench headed by Justice Vikram Nath said.
The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by journalist Sucheta Dalal who sought information about unused or dormant accounts to be published on a central website for the benefit of the legal heirs to access. Surely one of these sites exists.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which filed its response to the petition told the court that the central portal UDGAM (Unclaimed Deposits – Information Access Portal) has been in place since 2023 and 30 banks have been included. About 2 million people are registered on this portal; By providing basic details of the deceased person supported by any identity document, they can obtain information about bank accounts under that name.
The court wanted to know whether “all government banks were integrated into the portal”.
The lawyer representing the Ministry of Finance informed the court that an affidavit was being prepared in this regard.
The bench, also comprising Justices Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi, asked the RBI, “Are you getting responses on your portal? This requires timely migration of data from banks to the portal.”
“Our portal only provides information about bank accounts and is not a platform for settling claims. Based on the information provided, the legal heirs should contact the bank concerned,” senior advocate Ranjit Kumar appearing for the RBI said.
