‘Only up to Rs 1 lakh, not all money, insured in banks’

Agencies

December 3, 2019

New Delhi, Dec 3: Depositors in failed and liquidated banks will get only up to ₹1 lakh as insurance cover, regardless of the amount in their accounts, according to the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India.

This covers savings, fixed, current and recurring accounts, the DICGC, which insures all bank deposits, said in response to a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by PTI.

"Under the provisions of Section 16 (1) of the DICGC Act, 1961, if a bank fails/gets liquidated, the DICGC is liable to pay to each depositor through the liquidator, the amount of his deposit up to Rs one lakh as insurance cover, for both principal and interest amount held by him in the same right and same capacity at all the branches of a bank taken together," it said.

Asked whether there is any proposal or move under consideration to raise the limit of ₹1 lakh insured in the bank in wake of the recent PMC Bank fraud, the DICGC said, "The corporation does not have the requisite information." The corporation covers all commercial banks, including branches of foreign banks functioning in India, local area banks and regional rural banks.

All eligible cooperative banks as defined in Section 2(gg) of the DICGC Act are also covered by the deposit insurance scheme.

"Each depositor in a bank is insured up to a maximum of Rs one lakh as on the date of liquidation/cancellation of bank's license or the date on which the scheme of amalgamation/merger/reconstruction comes into force," the DICGC said.

The response assumes significance with numerous instances of different banks becoming victim of frauds, putting at risk the savings of people.

On September 24, the RBI imposed operational curbs on Maharashtra-based PMC Bank and appointed an administrator following the detection of alleged financial irregularities.

According to the Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW), the PMC Bank management, allegedly in cahoots with a business family, concealed huge loan defaults by HDIL group firms from banking regulators.

Over 70 per cent of the bank's advances went to HDIL group, which led to a huge crisis when the realty group defaulted on repayment, the EOW said.

Government owned banks have reported frauds of over Rs 95,700 crore in the first six months of the current fiscal.

"According to Reserve Bank of India (RBI), frauds as per year of reporting, as reported by Public Sector Banks (PSBs), during the period from April 1, 2019 to September 30, 2019 is 5,743 involving a total amount of Rs 95,760.49 crore," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the Rajya Sabha last month.

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‘Pay the worker before his sweat dries’: Madras High Court cites Prophet Muhammad’s teaching while ordering settlement of dues

News Network

December 21,2025

Invoking the teachings of Prophet Muhammad—“pay the worker before his sweat dries”—the Madras High Court has directed a municipal corporation to settle long-pending legal dues owed to a former counsel. The court observed that this principle reflects basic fairness and applies equally to labour and service-related disputes.

Justice G. R. Swaminathan made the observation while hearing a petition filed by advocate P. Thirumalai, who claimed that the Madurai City Municipal Corporation failed to pay him legal fees amounting to ₹13.05 lakh. Earlier, the High Court had asked the corporation to consider his representation. However, a later order rejected a major portion of his claim, prompting the present petition.

The court allowed Thirumalai to approach the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) and submit a list of cases in which he had appeared. It also directed the corporation to settle the verified fee bills within two months, without interest. The court noted that the petitioner had waited nearly 18 years before challenging the non-payment and that the corporation could not be fully blamed, as the fee bills were not submitted properly.

‘A Matter of Embarrassment’

Justice Swaminathan described it as a “matter of embarrassment” that the State has nearly a dozen Additional Advocate Generals. He observed that appointing too many law officers often leads to unnecessary allocation of work and frequent adjournments, as government counsel claim that senior officers are engaged elsewhere.

He expressed hope that such practices would end at least in the Madurai Bench of the High Court and added that Additional Advocate Generals should “turn a new leaf” from 2026 onwards.

‘Scandalously High Amounts’

While stating that the court cannot examine the exact fees paid to senior counsel or law officers, Justice Swaminathan stressed that good governance requires public funds to be used prudently. He expressed concern over the “scandalously high amounts” paid by government and quasi-government bodies to a few favoured law officers.

In contrast, the court noted that Thirumalai’s total claim was “a pittance” considering the large number of cases he had handled.

Background

Thirumalai served as the standing counsel for the Madurai City Municipal Corporation for more than 14 years, from 1992 to 2006. During this period, he represented the corporation in about 818 cases before the Madurai District Courts.

As the former counsel was unable to hire a clerk to obtain certified copies of judgments in all 818 cases, the court directed the District Legal Services Authority to collect the certified copies within two months. The court further ordered the corporation to bear the cost incurred by the DLSA and deduct that amount from the final settlement payable to the petitioner.

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