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4. But as already indicated, the relevant statute providing for the nomination may also provide that the amount or the properties, in respect of which nomination has been made, shall also vest in the nominee. As has been held by a Division Bench of this Court in Keshab Lal v. Ivarani , construing the relevant provisions of the Provident Funds Act, 1925 and the Contributory Provident Fund (Bengal) Rules, a nomination thereunder conferred on the nominee not only absolute right to receive the money but also an absolute interest in the money itself.

6. As I have already indicated. There cannot be a straight-jacket formula as to the ambit or gamut of the right of a nominee in respect of an amount or other property and whether the nominee has a bare right to receive the same or acquires a right in the property itself shall depend on the provisions of the statute authorising such nomination. If the statute does not provide for acquisition of right in or vesting of the property, the same shall devolve according to the ordinary law relating to intestate succession and a nominee cannot exclude the legal heirs of the nominator. We must, therefore, consider the relevant provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to ascertain the rights of a nominee in respect of a Safety Locker in a Bank.

7. The relevant provision is section 452E of the Act, contained in Part IIIB thereof, inserted by an Amendment in 1984. Subsection (I) provides that a hirer of a Locker may nominate another "to whom, in the event of the death of such individual (i.e. the hirer), the Banking company may give access to the locker and liberty to remove the contents of the locker". Section 452 A deals with rights of a nominee in respect of deposit of money and Section 452C deals with the rights of a nominee in respect of deposit of articles. Subsection (2) of Section 45ZA clearly provides that on the death of the depositor of money, "the nominee shall become entitled to all the rights of the .. depositor .. in relation to such deposit to the exclusion of all other person .... "In the case of deposit of money, therefore, the nominee, on the death of the depositor, not only acquires the right to receive the amount, but acquires in the amount, all the rights of the depositor to the exclusion of all other persons. The absence of any such provision vesting all the rights of the depositor in the nominee, in Section 45ZE is conspicuous, whereunder the nominee does not acquire any title in the Locker or its contents. Sub-section (3) of Section 45ZC dealing with deposit of articles also provides that on the death of a depositor, "the nominee shall .. become entitled to the return of the article to the exclusion of all other persons". The position, therefore, appears to be that while section 45ZA purports to confer on a nominee in respect of the deposit of money, not only the right to receive the amount but also the right to the amount itself, Section 45ZC purports to confer on a nominee in respect of a deposit of articles only the right to the return of the article, but no right in the article itself.

9. One can understand the rationale behind the different provisions of Section 457A, dealing with deposit of money, of Section 45ZC dealig with deposit of article and of Section 45ZE dealing with safety Locker. In the case of deposit of money there being always a presumption that the money belongs to the holder of the account. Section 45ZA not only provides for release of the money to the nominee but proceeds further to provide that the nominee shall stand vested with all the rights of the depositor. In the case of deposit of any specific article by the depositor to the Bank, the Bank having received the article and having possessed the same in specie, has been obliged under Section 45ZC to return the article to the nominee. But since one may have an article without any right or title thereto, the Section does not provide for any transmission of interest from the depositor to the nominee.