"pwck" throws error message - "cannot lock file /etc/passwd" on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3

Issue

• Users cannot change their pwd, possibly because of below error.

[root@04 tmp]# pwck 
pwck: cannot lock file /etc/passwd

• Tried many attempts to resolve (removed locks file, created /tmp/passwd with only root user in) but did not fix the issue.

• Below Strace output reveals the section where errors (comapring to an identical server that it works on):

fcntl(3, F_SETFD, FD_CLOEXEC)           = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGALRM, {0x31ba0d81e0, ~[], SA_RESTORER, 0x31ba030280}, {SIG_DFL, [], 0}, 8) = 0
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_UNBLOCK, [ALRM], [], 8) = 0
alarm(15)                               = 0
fcntl(3, F_SETLKW, {type=F_WRLCK, whence=SEEK_SET, start=0, len=0}) = ? ERESTARTSYS (To be restarted)
--- SIGALRM (Alarm clock) @ 0 (0) ---
rt_sigreturn(0xe)                       = -1 EINTR (Interrupted system call)
alarm(0)                                = 0
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, [], NULL, 8) = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGALRM, {SIG_DFL, [], SA_RESTORER, 0x31ba030280}, NULL, 8) = 0
close(3)                                = 0
open("/usr/share/locale/locale.alias", O_RDONLY) = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=2528, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x2b7dec55f000
read(3, "# Locale name alias data base.\n#"..., 4096) = 2528
read(3, "", 4096)                       = 0
close(3)                                = 0
munmap(0x2b7dec55f000, 4096)            = 0
open("/usr/share/locale/en_US.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/shadow.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en_US.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/shadow.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en_US/LC_MESSAGES/shadow.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/shadow.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/shadow.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES/shadow.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
write(2, "pwck: cannot lock file passwd1\n", 31pwck: cannot lock file passwd1