(1) The account shall not be closed before maturity except in the following cases, namely:-

(a) on the death of the account holder;

(b) where the post office or the Bank concerned is satisfied, in cases of extreme compassionate grounds such as medical support in life-threatening diseases of the account holder or death of the guardian, that the operation or continuation of the account is causing undue hardship to the account holder, it may, after complete documentation, by order and for reasons to be recorded in writing, allow premature closure of the account.

(2) Where an account is prematurely closed under sub-paragraph (1), interest on principal amount shall be payable at the rate applicable to the Scheme for which the account has been held.

(3) Premature closure of an account may be permitted, any time after the completion of six months from the date of opening of an Account on an application in Form-4, for any reason other than provided under sub-paragraph (1), and in which case the balance as stood from time to time in the account shall be eligible only for the interest rate less by two per cent. than the rate specified in this Scheme.

(4) In calculating the maturity value, any amount in fraction of a rupee shall be rounded off to the nearest rupee and for this purpose, any amount of fifty paisa or more shall be treated as one rupee and any amount less than fifty paisa shall be ignored.

Source Gazette Notification