Sankaranarayanan (Advocate) 18 May 2021
consult local lawyer and act accordingly
G.L.N. Prasad (Retired employee.) 19 May 2021
Make a nomination to the locker and other deposits also and also state the same in the will also. This is perfectly legal and there can not be any problems in returning the article to the nominee and mention in the will substantiates the claim of the nominee also.
SIVARAMAPRASAD KAPPAGANTU (Retired Manager) 19 May 2021
The problem here is that the Locker is not an asset of the person who "rented" it. Bank only gave it on rent to the Customer and Bank is not aware of the contents of the Locker. Locker per-se cannot be bequeathed but only the contents of the locker can be which in itself is fraught with practical difficulties of items not matching with the descripttion in the Will etc.
As already suggested, it is better to give a nomination regarding a Locker as per the procedure of the bank, instead of writing it in a Will and complicate the matter. When there is a Nomination, the nominee shall receive the contents in trust and it is the duty of the nominee to distribute the contents as per the Will or in the absence of a Will as per the eligibility of each of the legal heir. If the Will maker wishes to bequeath a certain item/s to a particular member of the family, the fact can be mentioned in the Will with proper descripttion of the item/s therein.
T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate (Advocate) 20 May 2021
As rightly suggested by the above expert, it would be better that the chosen person be made as nominee to the bank locker to operate the bank locker after the death of the account holder.
As rightly pointed out, the locker cannot be bequeathed in the Will, the contents of the locker can be bequeathed, the other legal heirs have no right or claim if they have not been included as beneficiary to the contents of the locker.
Dr J C Vashista (Advocate) 20 May 2021
Well advised by experts, I agree.
Mention nominee in the Bank account for the locker for operating it after your death.
However, you may execute will and mention therein detail of nominee appointed for operating the locker, who would be functioning as a custodian of the property which will devolve upon legal representatives of deceased / such account-holder.