Treading a Thin Line

As per Rule 10 of Post Office Manual, the ministry of finance is empowered to relax the rule, by recording reason and justification, if any depositor is deprived and undue hardship is caused to him due to wrong investment. This rule was discussed in detail in the case of Department of Post & Telegraph versus Dr RC Saxena in 1997. The court, while discussing the same, insisted that this power should be exercised by the government with great caution and only in the rarest of rare cases. In cases like the one discussed in this article, it is clear from the facts that the depositor opened another account in a different post office and not in the same post office because he was well aware of the rule that one could not open two accounts in the same post office and that his intent was to get interests on different deposits.