Dear all, The master circular pages 34 - 38 speaks about providing all banking facilities to the old/ sick who is neither able to give a thumb impression, nor able to ensure his physical presence in the bank and those who are incapacitated due to old age. (I didnt get what it means by incapacitated, though). The IBA has also provided all facilities to Visually impaired persons as well as given special provisions of access for persons with VI. In case of physical disabilities, it speaks of physical access in banks and do not deny banking rights.
Where as it acknowledges the National Trust Act (also mistook in the circular as Mental Disabilities Act) and specifies that persons with disabilities under NT act should use the provisions of guardianship, thus providing a check for persons with 4 NT disabilities to operate their own account. So is the case with persons with mental ; to get a guardianship from the Magistrate or Court. Though there are people among the 4 NT disabilities, who operate their own bank accounts, they all seem to have fought it out individually and the guidelines remain the same till date, even the revised one. The illustrative cases from issue 50 of Ombudsman news - 50-4 and 50-5 pointed out by Vaishnavi, gives a picture that if the banks have a reason to suppose that the person is unable to understand what he is doing or understand the banking process he is involved with, then the banks have the authority to stop the contracts stamping them as voidable. If banks can suppose a person's capacity and incapacity, the furnishing of ID card of a person with mental illness or mental health survivor would immediately and authentically make the banks judge that the person is incapacitated and the contracts would be voidable. How could banks judge the capacity of a person? How could any human being be termed incapacitated? What is the process that the banks are following in this judging act? If the banks could provide all, equal and accessible banking facilities to old/sick people who could not even make a physical presence in the banks or sign or afix thumb impression, why not the same provisions be extended to persons with all disabilities, who ever require it? Why cant the IBA come up with equal and accessible provisions for persons with mental illness as well? Though this issue have been fought out bits and pieces across the country, we are still on square one. This could be sort out only if the RBI guidelines and the concerned laws related to banking is amended in lines with UNCRPD and circulars released there after. Amendment to RBI guidelines have taken place in june 2012 as per the links given by Vaishnavi and in 2011 July before that. I think, we should discuss with the concerned committees that is responsible for coming up with recommendations to the guidelines, and continuously lobby to make the guidelines respect the inherent dignity, rights and legal capacity of persons with mental illness and all other disabilities and provide equal access to all banking facilities.. Do share your valuable inputs on the way ahead! Thanks & Regards Smitha On 4 July 2012 19:49, Vaishnavi Jayakumar <[email protected]>wrote: > Dear Punitha & all, > > Whatever guidelines were shown to you are/were outdated. PFA most recent > master > circular<http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_ViewMasCirculardetails.aspx?id=7373>(July > 2012) from RBI addressing banking for PwD.(Pages 34-39 are relevant > in the context of this discussion). > > The document quotes this > > (A) Under the provisions of the Indian Contract Act, 1872, contracts with >> persons of unsound mind >> are void. No banker would therefore, knowingly open an account in the >> name of person of unsound >> mind, as that would easily involve him in "the difficulty of choosing >> between the risk of dishonouring >> the customers‘ cheques on the one hand and of being held to have debited >> his account without >> adequate authority on the other" (Hart's Law of Banking). > > > It's obvious that this does not address the rights of people under the > National Trust Act / Mental Health Act to operate bank accounts *except > via their respective guardians as established* under these acts (MHA is > erroneously referred to as Mental Disabilities Act in 2 places!). Offensive > language apart, challenging the withholding of this right would mean > challenging the issue of contractual capacity which is complicated in that > no-one-size-fits-all *globally*. See illustrative cases 50-4 & 50-5 on > capacity and contract at end of document > here<http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/50/banking-contracts.htm> > . > > Indian legislation so far has not addressed nuances of competence / > capacity. Please refer Bhargavi's > study<http://dnis.org/features.php?issue_id=2&volume_id=9&features_id=193> on > the widespread b/w usage of the sweeping interpretation of the term > 'unsound mind' in Indian jurisprudence. *(B, where is entire document > uploaded online?)* > > One can't totally dismiss the removal of such clauses because the option > of exercising the 'unsound mind' defence is also a right. See the recent > case of a billionaire with bipolar > disorder<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/15/millionaire-ed-bazinet-shopping-spree-new-york-gift-fair-mental-hospital_n_1279632.html?view=print&comm_ref=false>for > an example. > > Smitha - I couldn't find the original, but the Google OCR engine has done > a decent enough job with thge original scanned image which is attached as > an accessible pdf. > > All, I have taken the liberty of including some more voices to bring their > experience /expertise to what is a common enough pan-India pain in the ass! > > Regards, > > Vaishnavi > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mental Health Advocacy (News 'N Views) India" group. 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