Many people do not know that many private banks are insisting for a minimum balance in the SB Accounts failing which the account holders will be penalised. In fact I was not aware till recently about this undesirable and anti-people condition. The issue has come up again in news.
There is, of course a condition that a minimum balance should be in the SB accounts of the Banks, but that is a small amount. In the Post Office SB Accounts it is minimal. In the State Bank of India and the Public Sector Banks it is also around Rs 250 or so. . However, there is no penalty or fine if the minimum balance is not there. Probably interest may not be calculated, but if the amount is very less, where is the question of interest.
But what is the stance of the private banks in this matter. Take the three major private banks, ICICI, HDFC and Axix Banks for example. Their condition is that a minimum of Rs. 10,000 should be in the SB Accounts in 5,000 in rural areas.(For Axis Bank it is Rs. 2500 in rural area). Penalty for non-maintenance of minimum amount varies from Rs. 350 to Rs. 750.
Is it that these private banks want only the rich to start accounts in their banks? Is it that they are disdainful of the ordinary people of this country who cannot keep a minimum of Rs. 1,0000 or 5000. And they will impose penalty also? So a person in whose account the amount goes down from Rs. 10,000 or 5000, there will be no money left after a few years in the account, leave alone the interest for the balance.
The Finance Ministry should intervene and put an end to this injustice.
VAN Namboodiri's Blog 
ICICI doing it for last 6 years
A small correction. It is not the minimum balance should be 10000 but the average balance should be10000 in the quarter. It means if you have deposited 50000 for one day it is equivalent to 10000 for five days. They do it to ensure that there is always some transaction so that the account is not inactive. However you will get the SB interest rate for the amount which ofcourse is around 5%.
In any case, it is not a correct thing but they do it to ensure that the accounts do not get inactive. But, unfortunately the account holder suffers due to such rules.
They should devise another mechanism to deal with the inactive accounts but not this way ofcourse.