Case title- Smt. Praveen Jahan v. State of UP and Anr
Citation- 2026 LLBiz HC (ALL) 88
A vital legal update on banking regulations and human rights: The Allahabad High Court has flagged a major gap in banking laws that leaves families of comatose patients financially stranded. The Bench has called on the RBI and the legislature to create clear operational guidelines allowing dependents access to frozen bank funds to manage medical emergencies and household costs.
A division bench of Justice Ajit Kumar and Justice Garima Prashad observed:
“In the circumstances, therefore, some sort of legislation from the competent legislature or even the guidelines necessary from the Reserve Bank of India regulating the nationalized bank and subsidiary banks to the nationalized banks for providing necessary mechanism as to how the money lying in the savings bank account of such patients can be released in favour of the dependents.”
The Court expressed concern over the financial difficulties faced by dependents when a person remains in a coma. The bench observed:
“It is indeed a matter of concern that a person who passes in state of Coma, the dependents become absolutely remediless in a sense that they do not have necessary fund and source of finances and to not only take care of the patient by meeting the expenses of the hospital but even to manage the household”.