Supreme Court seeks govt response on unclaimed deposits, heir access

E-PaperSubscribeSubscribeEnjoy unlimited accessSubscribe Now! Get features like 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 informing legal heirs of deceased persons who leave behind unclaimed deposits in banks, mutual funds and securities depositories. The court wanted to know whether all government banks have been integrated with the portal. (PEXEL)A bench headed by justice Vikram Nath said, “These details will be relevant. We know in some cases, banks contact the legal heirs in case of death of the account holder. The only solution is to have your KYC details updated with the bank.” The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by journalist Sucheta Dalal who sought information of unused or dormant accounts to be put out on a centralized website for the benefit of legal heirs to access them. To be sure, one such website exists. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which filed its response to the petition told the court that a centralised portal UDGAM (Unclaimed Deposits - Gateway to Access Information) exists since 2023 and 30 banks have been onboarded. Around 2 million people have registered on this portal; by providing the basic details of the deceased person supported by any identity document , they can get information on bank accounts under that name. The court wanted to know whether “all government banks have been integrated with the portal.” The lawyer appearing for the Ministry of Finance informed the bench that an affidavit in this regard is being prepared. The bench, also comprising justices Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi, asked RBI, “Are you getting responses on your portal? This requires timely migration of data from banks to the portal.” Senior advocate Ranjeet Kumar appearing for RBI said, “Our portal only provides information about the bank accounts and is not a platform for settling claims. Based on the information provided, the legal heirs must approach the concerned bank.”