A bench of Justices Mohan M Shantanagouder and Vineet Saran noted that the country is moving towards a cashless economy due to which people are hesitant to keep their liquid assets at home.
The top court observed that banks, under the Consumer Protection Act, have a “duty of care to exercise due diligence in maintaining and operating their locker or safety deposit systems. This includes ensuring the proper functioning of the locker system, guarding against unauthorised access to the lockers and providing appropriate safeguards against theft and robbery,” quoted PTI.
The demand for locker services has increased because of globalisation, making lockers an essential service that can be availed by both citizens and foreign nationals, observed the SC bench.
The top court was ruling on a case of a customer of the United Bank of India’s Kolkata branch, who alleged that in September 1994, his locker was broken open by the bank over non-payment of rent.
The petitioner, Amitabha Dasgupta,…