Dead people can’t be sued: Delhi Court to SBI

The defendant in the case was Siya Nand, who passed away two years before the suit was filed by the SBI. The bank was unaware that Nand was no more while they had filed the suit.

The court of Justice Surinder Rathi also advised bank officials to access the national births and deaths database to ascertain whether the individual they were seeking money from was dead or alive.

The court mentioned a similar anomaly was corrected by the Punjab National Bank in a similar case where they sued a dead man after more than 2 years of his death.

The Court also noted that SBI was the leading nationalised bank in the country and should lead other banks by being a “torchbearer of efficiency, professionalism, transparency and ethics.”

Accepting its mistake, the SBI told the court that action would be taken against the erring bank official for their non-compliance. The bank also accepted the court’s suggestion and stated that its officials would try and obtain access to the database of births and deaths.