Is a son required to produce succession certificate to get information pertaining to his deceased father?
11 Jul, 2013
Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the State Bank of India (SBI) seeking the statement of accounts in respect of his late father’s account for a period of thirteen years. The Public Information Officer (PIO) and the First Appellate Authority (FAA) denied the information to the appellant on the grounds that information pertained to customer’s affairs involving commercial confidence and in the nature of personal information held by the bank in a fiduciary capacity could not be disclosed to third party. The respondent also stated that the wife of the depositor had objected for disclosure of any information to the appellant.
Proceedings
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant stated that the bank had asked him to deposit the requisite fee for getting the statement of accounts but when he went to deposit the fee, the bank informed him that as his mother had objected to the giving of information and the bank would not provide it. The respondent stated that the bank had to take into account the objection raised by the mother of the appellant. In this context the bank had also expected a legal succession certificate from the appellant. The respondent submitted that the matter went to the court and now the appellant has become entitled to a certain portion of the account holder’s property and in accordance with the papers produced by the appellant, the respondent has already taken action. The respondent also elaborated that in respect of the information sought the concerned branch has already been instructed to provide the information. The respondent also stated that part of the information has already been provided and the remaining part would also be given in stipulated time period.
View of CIC
The Commission observed that no intervention of the Commission is required in the matter.
Citation: Mr. Rajesh Jain v. State Bank of India in Decision No. CIC/VS/A/2012/000662/03561
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1441
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission