6 months ago
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The Supreme Court connected Tuesday (January 6, 2026) agreed to analyse a petition seeking directions to the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to formulate a azygous Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) governing the freezing and de-freezing of slope accounts during cybercrime investigations.
A Bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and S.V.N. Bhatti ordered the petition to beryllium served connected the Centre wrong 3 days, and listed the substance adjacent week.
The plea besides sought the issuance of due guidelines to each investigating agencies, including cyber cells, crossed the state to guarantee nary slope relationship gets frozen without a written, reasoned bid and intimation to the relationship holder wrong 24 hours of specified action.
The plea filed by petitioner Vivek Varshney, done advocator Tushar Manohar Khairnar, that helium was aggrieved by the “arbitrary freezing/holding” of his slope account(s) by the Cyber Cell of Tamil Nadu Police allegedly without immoderate anterior notice, connection oregon judicial approval, thereby violating his cardinal rights nether Articles 19(1)(g) and 21 of the Constitution.
“Direct the responsive Union of India and the Reserve Bank of India to formulate a azygous Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) governing the freezing and de-freezing of slope accounts during cybercrime investigations, truthful arsenic to forestall arbitrary enactment and guarantee procedural fairness nationwide,” the plea said.
In fiscal paralysis: petitioner
The petitioner claimed that the freezing bid successful his lawsuit has resulted successful implicit fiscal paralysis, restricting him from carrying retired his nonrecreational and idiosyncratic obligations, including outgo of indispensable expenses, taxes and liabilities.
“It is respectfully submitted that Section 106(3) of BNSS/ 102(3) of the Cr.P.C. mandates that immoderate seizure oregon freezing of spot indispensable beryllium forthwith reported to the jurisdictional magistrate. However, successful the instant case, nary specified compliance has been made. The enactment of the respondents is, therefore, without jurisdiction, arbitrary, and unconstitutional,” it said.
The plea highlighted that determination is presently nary azygous process oregon Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) governing the freezing and unfreezing of slope accounts during cybercrime oregon fiscal investigations.
“Consequently, citizens crossed antithetic States are subjected to inconsistent practices, prolonged freezing periods, and deprivation of their fiscal rights without owed process. Hence, this court’s indulgence is sought to (i) nonstop the contiguous defreezing of the petitioner’s account(s); and (ii) framework azygous guidelines to guarantee procedural safeguards, proportionality, and accountability successful each aboriginal actions of this nature,” it said.
Mr. Varshney, whose slope relationship was allegedly frozen owed to a transaction related to merchantability of jewellery, submitted that his writ petition was filed to formulate a regularisation that unless an relationship holder is proven to beryllium complicit successful a crime, their full slope relationship oregon magnitude much than alleged to beryllium progressive successful the transgression should not beryllium frozen simply due to the fact that a suspicious transaction has been traced to it.
“Recognising the expanding frequence of specified cases”, the plea urged the tribunal to “formulate guidelines to prevention the communal antheral from suffering from unnecessary harassment”.
It besides urged the tribunal to nonstop “the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India to formulate a azygous argumentation and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) successful the cases of akin quality wherever cyber compartment issues notices freezing accounts”.
