POST MASTER (S.B) TIRUVARUR vs Subbulakshmi

THE opposite parties, two Officers of the Postal Department, against whom an award has been passed by the District Forum are the appellants.

THE complainant Subbulakshmi averred in her complaint that her husband Krishnamurthi was a subscriber to the post office savings bank recurring deposit account under Protective Savings Scheme from 3.3.93 in Tuticorin and he was paying a monthly subscription of Rs. 10/-. THE Account number was 936852. Under this scheme if the subscriber dies during the maturity period his heirs will be entitled to Rs. 10,000/-. THE complainant''s husband died on 7.5.93. When requested for payment, the opposite parties required birth Extract of her husband. THE birth of the complainant''s husband has not been registered anywhere and therefore she could not produce birth extract. But at the time of joining the scheme, the age of her husband was 51 years and that has been accepted by the opposite parties and therefore no birth certificate is necessary but however, the opposite parties are refusing to pay Rs. 10,000/- to which he is entitled to. On these allegations the complaint has been filed for directing the opposite parties to pay the amount of Rs. 10,000/-together with damages of Rs. 10,000/-. The opposite parties contended that the deceased husband of the complainant joined the Recurring Deposit Scheme and he was subscribing Rs. 10/-. For any one to get the benefit of Protected Savings Scheme certain conditions are to be satisfied. One such condition is that the deceased must be within 18 years and 53 years of age at the time of joining the Recurring Deposit. In the instant case, since there is no proof of age of the deceased, there must be some evidence of the age of the deceased to show that at the time of joining the scheme he was within 18 years and 53 years as stated above. The complainant was asked to get a birth extract. But, she did not produce one. Therefore, she cannot get the benefits under the Protected Savings Scheme. It was further contended that under the Protected Savings Scheme, if the complainant is entitled to the benefits she will be entitled to the full maturity value. "In the written version the amount of maturity value has not been mentioned but however in the appeal grounds it has been mentioned as Rs. 800.30."

The District Forum came to the conclusion that the opposite parties cannot insist for age certificate now and without ascertaining of the age, the postal authorities would not have admitted the complainant''s husband to the scheme and therefore the complainant will be entitled to the benefits of the Protected Savings Scheme. On this finding the District Forum ordered the opposite parties to pay the claim of Rs. 10,000/- as the amount payable under the Protected Savings Scheme with 12% p.a. from the date of complaint along with Rs. 500/- as costs of the complaint.

IN the appeal, the learned Counsel appearing for the appellant/opposite parties brought to our notice Section 5 of Para 4 of Post Office Guide. Section 5 as seen from the Clause (1) therein contains the rules called the Post Office Recurring Deposit Rules, 1981. Rule 13 reads as follows : "13. Repayment of full maturity value on the death of the depositor in certain cases (Protected Savings Scheme): (1) Where the depositor in a single account or the surviving depositor in a joint account dies during the maturity period of an account or its extension under Sub-rule (1) of Rule 7, the legal heir or nominee, as the case may be, of such depositor, shall be entitled to receive the amount specified in Sub-rule (1) of Rule 9 as if the depositor had paid all the sixty monthly deposits, subject to the following conditions namely: (i) The denomination of the account shall not exceed twenty rupees. (ii) The account has not become a discontinued account. (iii) The period from the date of opening the account to the date of death of the depositor or surviving depositor, as the case may be, is not less than two years. (iv) The age of the depositor or depositors, as the case may be, at the time of opening the account is not less than 18 years and not more than 53 years. At the time of opening the account or thereafter, every depositor shall give a declaration in writing to the Post Office Savings Bank indicating his age at the time of opening the account. Where such declaration has not been given by the depositor or depositors, the claimant shall furnish a certified copy of the School Leaving Certificate of the deceased depositor or a declaration on a plain paper as to the age of deceased depositor at the time of opening the account duly attested by a Gazetted Officer, a Magistrate (including Honorary Magistrate), a member of Parliament or of a Legislature (including the Metropolitan Council for Delhi) or a Panchayat President or Pramukh. (v) . (vi) (vii) (viii) .."

A reading of this would show that Protected Savings Scheme is a special scheme in Recurring Deposits. When a depositor dies during the maturity period his heirs will be entitled to the benefits of the Protected Savings Scheme if they satisfy certain conditions. One of those conditions is that at the time of opening the account the subscriber should not be less than 18 years and more than 53 years. IN the present case though the other conditions are satisfied, according to the Postal Department the age condition is not satisfied and that is why they wanted the complainant to get the age certificate of her deceased husband. She was not able to produce one, and therefore the Postal Department contended that they cannot give the full maturity value which comes as benefit under the Protected Savings Scheme. It is the contention of the complainant that at the time of opening of the account, the age of her deceased was 51 years and that has been accepted by the Postal Department. But there is no evidence regarding that. There is nothing to show that at the time of opening of Recurring Deposit, the age of the subscriber should be noted. So, necessity of age arises only when the benefits under the Protected Savings Scheme is claimed. This being the case, there was nothing wrong on the part of the Postal Department in asking for the age certificate of the deceased husband. IN these circumstances, the complainant cannot claim that she is entitled for full maturity value. What is worse is, she has claimed Rs. 10,000 /- as maturity value, but she is not able to point out under what rule or on what basis she is entitled to that much of amount. According to the Postal Department, as seen above, the full maturity value comes to Rs. 800.30. Now that the complainant has not produced the age certificate she cannot claim the full maturity value. Certainly of course, she will be entitled to the actual amounts subscribed with interest thereon. Therefore, the appeal has to be allowed and the order of the District Forum set aside and the complaint dismissed. We order accordingly, However, considering the circumstances of the case, we think it fit to recommend to the Postal Department to treat it if possible as a special case and give the full maturity value under the Protected Savings Scheme. There will be no order as to costs in the appeal. Appeal allowed.