The court has sought responses from the Centre and the RBI on whether a formal mechanism is needed to help dependants pay for treatment and household expenses when an account holder is incapacitated.
The Allahabad High Court has pressed the central government and the Reserve Bank of India to explain whether India needs a formal legal or regulatory route that would let the dependants of a comatose patient draw on the patient’s bank savings for treatment and everyday expenses.
A division bench of Justice Ajit Kumar and Justice Garima Prashad said families can be left in a precarious position when the account holder is unable to manage money or authorise withdrawals. According to the court, the absence of a workable procedure can make it difficult to pay hospital bills, buy medicines or cover ordinary household costs while a patient remains incapacitated.
The judges have asked both the Union government and the RBI to file separate affidavits setting out their stand, including whether any existing rules already address the problem or whether fresh legislation or central bank directions are needed. The court also sought the Uttar Pradesh chief secretary’s view on practical steps the state could take, and warned that officials may have to appear in person if the next hearing does not bring meaningful progress.
The case arose from a petition filed by Parveen Jahan over the savings account of her husband, Shamshad Ali, who had been in a coma before he died. During the hearing, counsel told the court the family had still not been able to access the funds in his account. The bench said that, in this case, the petitioner could pursue succession proceedings now that the account holder has died, but it used the dispute to revisit the wider problem identified in the court’s earlier 2020 ruling in Uma Mittal v. Union of India, which also examined the legal difficulties facing families of patients in a comatose state. The matter is listed again for November 6, 2026.
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