ABDUL AZEEZ Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Since common questions arise in these Writ Petitions, I dispose of these Writ Petitions by a common judgment. A crucial and important question arises in these Writ Petitions as to whether the Bank has the right or authority to freeze the account of its Account Holders on the basis of suspicion with respect to the transactions in the account by itself in the absence of any requisition to do so from a law enforcement agency. This question has emerged on account of the recent rampant increase in financial cyber fraud. The present situation has led to the filing of a large number of cases involving the account freezing of persons involved in the fraud and innocent persons in this Court. Every day this Court is dealing with nearly 200 cases. It is observed that a large number of transactions involving Crores of Rupees over a short period are present in several accounts belonging to young persons and persons from the lower strata of society. In such cases, it is clear that the accounts are used either for financial cyber fraud or for money mules. It is a challenging task for this Court to determine whether the Petitioner is an offender or a victim. This Court also considers the pattern of transactions to identify the offender and the victim while exercising its discretion under Article 226 of the Constitution of India to give relief to the Petitioners. Should the Bank remain a silent spectator when there are reasons to believe that its Account Holders have been using the accounts for illegal purposes is the question to be answered in these Writ Petitions.

(2.) The Petitioners in these Writ Petitions are Account Holders of two branches of the South Indian Bank Ltd.

(3.) The Petitioner in W.P.(C) No.32291/2024 was served with Ext.P1 Message dated nil, intimating that his account has been put under debit freeze on account of unusual transactions observed not matching with his declared profile and requesting to contact the Branch for further details. The account of this Petitioner is having a credit balance of Rs.20,00,380.00. The Petitioner claims that he is a non-resident Indian residing in the UAE and he has been conducting business therein for more than 20 years.