Bank lockers & your rights

Pushpa Girimaji

Advertisement

I have had a safe deposit locker with a public sector bank for the past 15 years. In 2018 I was out of the country and forgot to pay my locker rent. However, the bank neither sent a reminder nor any notice of opening my locker. On my return when I went to the bank, I found that the bank had broken open my locker, removed the contents and given the locker to some other customer. When I protested, they said as per the terms of the locker hire agreement, they could exercise that right if the customer did not pay the rent. Meanwhile on checking the contents, I noticed a pair of gold bangles missing. Can I hold the bank liable for the loss of my bangles? If so, on what grounds?

Yes, you can ask the bank to compensate you for the loss of your bangles on the ground that the bank did not give you due notice before opening the locker. The bank may have the right to break open the locker if the customer failed to pay the rent, but it has to follow due process of law in order to do that. It must first send a reminder about the rent due and if even after that the customer does not pay, send a notice intimating the customer about its intention to break open the locker. The bank should, of course, give the customer a reasonable time to respond to the notice. Here, the bank did not follow this due process.

The consumer courts have held that failure to send such a notice constitutes ‘deficiency in service’ on part of the bank and it has to take responsibility for the consequences of such deficient service, meaning they will have to make good the loss suffered by the consumer, if any, on account of its action.

Can you quote a recent case on this issue?

In Punjab National Bank Vs Anurag Gupta (FA NO 1756 of 2019 decided on November 1, 2019), the Nation Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission examined a similar issue. Here, the complainant’s allegation was that he had hired a locker in 1994 and while earlier, he had left standing instructions to withdraw the money towards the locker rent from his savings bank account, subsequently, he used to deposit Rs 800 by cash towards the locker rent. When due to some unavoidable circumstances he defaulted on the rent for 2012-2013, the bank had sent him a notice on June 28, 2013 about the rent due and he had immediately deposited the amount.

However, on February 2015, the bank had broken open his locker without sending any notice and deposited the contents in a locker under the control of the bank. This he had come to know only on visiting the bank locker on April 18, 2015. He also said some items were missing.

The bank here argued that the complainant had not paid the rent for two years and they sent him three notices, but they all returned with the message that the address was incomplete. They had even sent an employee to the address, but he had not found the complainant.

The bank also quoted in its support, the Reserve Bank of India guidelines saying if the locker remained non-operative for a certain period of time, the bank was within its power to break open the lock. It also quoted Clause 8 of its agreement with the customer, which said that in case of non-payment of rent by the customer, the bank was free to break open the locker to realise the dues by public or private sale of the contents.

The National Commission, however, pointed out that both the RBI guidelines and the terms of the agreement drawn up by the bank stipulated that the customer be given due notice before taking such action, but it was apparent that none of the notices sent by the bank had reached the customer. Pointing out that the bank should have issued a public notice to the complainant in such circumstances, the Commission held that the bank had not complied with the requirement of Clause 8 of the Agreement.

Holding the bank guilty of deficient service, the Commission upheld the verdict of the Lucknow State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, awarding the consumer Rs5 lakh as compensation and Rs10,000 as litigation costs.