The Supreme Court has directed the Indian government and SEBI to provide a response on the mechanism for informing legal heirs of deceased individuals with unclaimed bank deposits.
A bench of justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and Vijay Bishnoi sought information on how banks contact legal heirs in case of account holder death and the role of a centralised portal, UDGAM, in providing access to unclaimed deposits.
The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by journalist Sucheta Dalal, who sought the release of information on unused or dormant accounts on a centralized website for the benefit of legal heirs.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) informed the court that a centralised portal, UDGAM, exists since 2023 and 30 banks have been onboarded, with 2 million people registered.
The court asked RBI about the integration of all government banks with the portal and whether the portal receives timely responses and data migration from banks.
