Answer Book question
Yes, up to a fixed amount. Since 2022, if locker contents are lost through theft, burglary, fire, building collapse or fraud by the bank's own staff, the bank must pay you 100 times the annual locker rent, without your having to prove what was inside. If you can prove gross negligence and the actual value, courts can award more. The bank is not liable for floods, earthquakes or your own carelessness, and it cannot make you buy insurance as a condition of the locker.
Yes, up to a fixed amount. Since 2022, if locker contents are lost through theft, burglary, fire, building collapse or fraud by the bank's own staff, the bank must pay you 100 times the annual locker rent, without your having to prove what was inside. If you can prove gross negligence and the actual value, courts can award more. The bank is not liable for floods, earthquakes or your own carelessness, and it cannot make you buy insurance as a condition of the locker.
A family keeps wedding gold in a locker costing ₹3,000 a year. A gas-cutter burglary over a long weekend empties the vault. The bank's automatic liability is ₹3 lakh. If the contents were worth ₹15 lakh, the difference has to be argued as negligence in the consumer commission, with whatever evidence of contents exists.
After the Supreme Court's 2021 judgment in Amitabha Dasgupta, RBI issued the Safe Deposit Locker and Safe Custody Article Directions, 2021, effective 1 January 2022 for new and existing lockers. Banks must use a standard agreement, maintain a branch waiting list, give priority to senior citizens and persons with disabilities, allow nomination, send you an SMS and email alert on every access, and hold CCTV footage for at least 180 days.
Liability for the listed events is fixed at 100 times the prevailing annual rent. Banks may take a term deposit as security for rent but only up to three years' rent plus break-open charges. If the bank cannot give you access for its own reasons for more than seven consecutive working days, the same 100-times figure applies. Banks may not require customers to insure locker contents.
Your annual rent (the liability figure is exactly 100 times it) Whether you signed the revised RBI-format agreement; banks were to migrate all customers by end-2023 Nomination on the locker Whether you receive access alerts; if not, ask for them to be activated A private inventory with photographs and purchase invoices, kept at home, dated and updated
Keeping no record of contents. The 100-times figure is automatic; anything above it needs proof. A dated photo set and jeweller's bills stored away from the locker are the whole case.
Kerala lockers hold gold above all, and gold is hard to prove after the fact. Many branches have long waiting lists; the rule that lists must be maintained and allocation must be first-come, with senior priority, is enforceable. NRI families should put a resident joint holder or nominee on the locker now, not at a funeral.
Annual rent ₹4,000 → automatic liability ₹4,00,000. Rent ₹1,200 → ₹1,20,000. If the contents exceed that, a separate home-contents or jewellery policy costs roughly 0.5% to 1% of the insured value a year and pays on theft from a bank locker if the policy says so.
Loss from natural calamities or from your own negligence (a lost key used by someone else) is excluded. Deposits of cash in a locker are not permitted under the agreement and are not protected.
Re-sign the RBI-format locker agreement if you have not Add a nominee and activate access alerts Photograph and inventory the contents at your next visit
Is my deposit in a cooperative society insured like a bank deposit? What nominees should my elderly parents update now? (Vol 1)
Family finances
RBI Safe Deposit Locker and Safe Custody Article Directions, 2021 (effective 1 January 2022) and subsequent clarifications · Supreme Court, Amitabha Dasgupta v United Bank of India (2021) · Your locker agreement and rent receipt Last checked: 22 August 2026. Rates, limits and whether you may qualify change. Confirm with the official source before you act. Ask Kerala Rising: Use only general, non-identifying facts.
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This page is general orientation, not personal insurance, investment, medical, legal, lending, tax, employment, or professional advice. Rules, rates, deadlines, and decisions can change. Confirm the current position with the named official source and use a licensed or qualified professional where your situation requires one. Kerala Rising does not decide whether you may qualify, approve claims, or promise an outcome.