Unclaimed balance of over Rs. 750 crores lying in 2.5 crore postal accounts - claim that no steps taken by the postal authorities to return the money to the legitimate claimants - CIC: Provide copy of RBI guidelines for monitoring of dormant accounts
25 Sep, 2013Huge unclaimed balance of Rs. 752.44 crores lying in 2.49 crore accounts as on 31/03/2011 - claim that no steps have been taken by the postal authorities to return the money to the legitimate claimants - unclaimed balances are prone to fraud - the Reserve Bank of India has directed banks to transfer dormant balances to the Government of India after a period of 10 years - CIC: RBI and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs have issued appropriate guidelines for monitoring and taking proactive steps to refund unclaimed balances to legitimate claimants/ their heirs and to transfer the balances lying in dormant accounts to the Government after a specified period - PIO to provide the details of 100 largest unclaimed balances
Information sought by the applicant:
Kindly provide complete and detailed information together with related documents/ correspondence/file-notings etc on under mentioned aspects:
1- Complete and detailed information on different types of deposits and/or savings scheme launched by Indian postal department ever since independence mentioning also (Separately for each deposit /scheme etc) total deposits in such schemes, total number of depositors/account holders etc in such schemes, total unclaimed amounts in such schemes/ deposits etc, number of persons/bodies involved for such unclaimed amounts till date the data is last available/compiled.
2- Complete and detailed information on steps taken to inform and/or return such unclaimed amounts to depositors/account holders etc and/ or their legal heirs.
3- Total number of post offices savings accounts becomes inoperative for non operation.
4- Period after which post office savings accounts become inoperative for non operation.
5- Total number of such inoperative post office savings accounts and total deposits in such inoperative post office savings accounts as per last available/compiled.
6- Complete and detailed information on steps taken to inform and/or return such unclaimed amounts to account holders of post office savings banks and/or to their legal heirs.
7- Is there any system whereby such unclaimed deposits/savings etc including also those in unclaimed post office savings bank accounts transferred to some government fund after some specified period?
8- If yes, please provide details.
9- Any other related or follow up information. 10-File notings on movement of my RTI petition as well.
Grounds for the Second Appeal:
The CPIO in response to query (2) & (6) replied that the sought information is not maintained at Headquarter level. The first appeal was also dismissed vide an order dated 10/07/2012 mentioning that such detail can be available at the level of individual post offices. But the information sought is procedural which has to be followed by all post offices, and can be available only at the level of headquarters. However in case department of posts does not have a procedure in respect of informing claimants about their unclaimed deposits etc lying in post offices, it should be informed accordingly.
Relevant Facts emerging during hearing:
The appellant stated that the respondent have not given any satisfactory response to his query on the guidelines and the steps taken to inform and/or return unclaimed amounts lying in various deposit and saving accounts with the post offices. He pointed out that as per the CPIO’s reply dated 28/06/2012 there was a huge unclaimed balance of Rs. 752.44 crores lying in 2.49 crore accounts as on 31/03/2011 and no steps have been taken by the postal authorities to return the money to the legitimate claimants. He stated that unclaimed balances are prone to fraud and at his instance the Reserve Bank of India has now directed banks to transfer dormant balances to the Government of India after a period of 10 years as is being done in case of unpaid dividends which are required to be transferred to the Government after three years. The appellant contended that he is in correspondence with the RBI to reduce the period of remittance of unclaimed deposits to the Government of India to three years. He further stated that the very fact the respondents are collecting data relating to unclaimed balances indicates that there are certain instructions in place for refunding the amounts to legitimate claimants /their heirs. He requested that copies of the instructions along with details of 100 largest unclaimed balances (amount and period for which account is lying dormant) should be intimated to him. The CPIO’s representative agreed to furnish the information.
Decision notice:
As pointed out by the appellant the RBI and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs have issued appropriate guidelines for monitoring and taking proactive steps to refund unclaimed balances to legitimate claimants/ their heirs and to transfer the balances lying in dormant accounts to the Government after a specified period. The CPIO should provide the information as above, free of cost, to the appellant within 45 days from the date of receipt of this order.
The appeal is disposed of accordingly.
BASANT SETH
Information Commissioner
Citation: Mr. Subhash Chandra Agarwal v. Department of Communication & IT , Department of Posts in File No. CIC/BS/A/2012/001043/3364