Conflicting legal provisions centring the ownership of bank deposits and investment in savings tools of deceased persons are often forcing their successors to resort to legal battle among themselves.
According to legal professionals, disputes do generally surface in the case of deceased persons leaving behind more than one family. The members of the same family, however, are also found locked in legal battles over ownership of bank deposits and savings tools' money.
The legal battle is generally fought between the person/s nominated by the deceased account holders and the other successors.
Section 103 of the Bank Companies Act and Section 17 of Sanchaypatra Rules do authorise the nominees to withdraw the money from accounts after the death of the depositors.
But these sections of the laws put the successors of the deceased persons into trouble when they claim their portions of the deposited money in accordance with the Muslim Personal Law.
The High Court bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Khizir Ahmed Choudhury on April 03, 2016 ruled in a judgement that the nomination only 'indicates the hand' which is authorised to receive the amount, on the payment of which the bank gets a valid discharge of its liability under savings certificate.
The amount, however, can be claimed by the heirs of the holder in accordance with the law of succession governing them.
The court directed the Bangladesh Bank to distribute the amount lying against the Sanchaypatra in the name one deceased person, Md Shaidul Haque Chowdhury, among his heirs on the basis of the succession certificate to be issued by the court.
But the Bangladesh Bank (BB) issued a circular on April 19, 2017
directing all the scheduled banks to pay the deposited money to the nominee/s after the death of an accountholder.
Later, the BB issued more circulars on the bases of the same principle.
Sources said the scheduled banks have been following the BB circulars.
For instance, a former deputy director of the Bangladesh Bank Shahidul Haque Chowdhury kept Tk 3.0 million in his account. But after death, his second wife Bilkis Ara Begum, who was the nominee of the account, claimed the money and tried to withdraw it from the account.
But three other successors of the deceased, namely Munjurul Haque and his two sisters Zamila Sultana and Zakia Sultana, all belonging to the Shahidul's first family, filed a case with the trial court seeking their portions from the deposited money, claiming that they were the legal successors of Shahidul Haque.
The trial court on September 03 in 2014 rejected their petition and said the nominee would withdraw the money from the account.
Later, the trio filed an appeal with the Dhaka's Additional District Judge's Court against the order of the Joint District Court. The additional district judge court on March 10 in 2015 rejected the appeal, upholding the Joint District Judge Court order. Later, the trio moved with the High Court by filing a civil revision against the trial court's order in June 2015.
After hearing on the revision petition, the HC bench gave the verdict, paving the way for the successors to become the legal owners of money deposited with banks by their predecessors.
In another case, Md Abdus Salam Miah, a former principal officer of Rupali Bank Limited, died on January 04, 2017, leaving behind two wives, five sons and one daughter. He nominated his second wife, Firoza Begum, to receive his pension money from the bank.
But after his death, all of his successors did claim the pension money. The bank on August 21, 2017 asked all the successors to submit succession certificates to the bank.
Finally, a suit was filed with the trial court over identifying the real successors, said Barrister Saiful Alam Chowdhury, a lawyer for Feroza Begum.
In the meantime, Firoza Begum filed a writ petition with the High Court challenging the inaction of the bank authorities to disburse pension money in her favour.
After hearing, the High Court bench of Justice AFM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader on August 27 directed the bank to disburse a portion of the pension money in favour of the nominee, Firoza Begum.
The other successors will get their portion after disposal of the case, said the lawyer concerned quoting the HC's order.
Barrister Saiful Alam Chowdhury in his submission said that if succession certificates were made mandatory to withdraw money from a deceased's account then there should not be any provision for making nominations by the depositors.
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