Postal department to pay for misguiding widow

THANE: The postal department in Thane was instructed to pay a compensation of Rs 1.50 lakh to complainant, Cynthia Josephine D'souza by the Thane District Consumer Redressal Forum for misguiding her into continuing her joint fixed deposit account with them, even after the death of her husband. Admitting the widow's complaint, the forum ordered the Postal Department to pay the compensation within a period of 60 days, or else pay interest at 9 per cent till the amount is paid. 

In her complaint filed in 2010, D'souza, a Kolbad resident, told the forum that post her retirement as a school teacher in 2002, she invested a sum of Rs 4.50 lakh jointly with her husband in a lucrative scheme launched by the Postal Department called Monthly Income Scheme (MIS). After a few months, her husband Ronald, too, had made another investment along with the complainant for Rs 1.50 lakh in the same scheme. The couple would get the monthly interest in their account on the two FDs. 

On the eve of Christmas on December 24, 2002, Ronald died. The complainant said she informed the post office about the demise in May 2003. Following her husband's death, a postal employee gave her a form to include the names of her son Allan and daughter in the two accounts separately. The complainant widow said at the time of maturity of the two FD's, the post department however, paid Rs 5.42 lakh against the full sum of Rs 7.75 lakh. Short of Rs 2.33 lakh, she approached the Postal Department, but was told that the amount/calculation was correct. 

Aggrieved, she filed a claim for the amount with 11 per cent interest and also Rs 20,000 towards mental sufferings. Denying any deficiency of service, the Postal Department however, said that after the death of a person, in any joint account, the account becomes single and one cannot keep a sum of more than Rs 3 lakh. 

The forum rejected the submission of the department and observed that the department was at fault in giving wrong advice and getting the names changed, continuing the accounts with it knowing that the amount lying in the account is more than which is permitted. 

The Forum also observed that the department employees were themselves ignorant of the rules and so failed to inform Dsouza about the provisions. 

If the department would have informed her of the rules, Dsouza would have withdrawn the excess sum and invested the same in some other place to get good interest.

Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/