Deficient Postal Dept asked to pay Rs 1.5 lakh compensation

The Thane District Consumer Redressal Forum has held the local post office guilty of misguiding a woman into continuing her joint fixed deposit account with them, even after the death of her husband.
Admitting the widow's complaint, Forum President Umesh Jhavalikar and Member N D Kadam, ordered the Postal Department recently to pay a compensation of Rs 1.50 lakh to the complainant within a period of 60 days else pay interest at 9 percent till realisation of the amount.
The complainant, Cynthia Josephine D'souza, a resident of Kolbad here, told the Forum in her complaint that it in 2002, she retired as a school teacher and invested a sum of Rs 4.50 lakh jointly with her husband in the Postal Department's lucrative Monthly Income Scheme (MIS).

Also, her husband had made another investment along with the complainant and invested Rs 1.50 lakh. The couple were getting monthly interest in their account on the two FDs, the Forum was told.
It was on December 24, 2002 on the eve of Christmas that her husband died. The postal department was intimated about the demise in May 2003 by the complainant.
She informed the Forum that following her husband's death, a postal employee gave here a form to include the names of her son Allen and daughter Sapna in the two accounts separately.

The complainant widow further stated in her complaint that at the time of maturity she was paid Rs 5.42 lakhs against the full sum of Rs 7.75 lakhs.

Short of Rs 2.33 lakhs, 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.
The Forum discussed the entire issue at length and the submission of the Postal department which stated that after the death of a person in any joint account the account becomes single, in which one cannot keep a sum more than Rs 3 lakh.