Delhi High Court Calls For Meeting To Ensure Banks Follow SOP On Providing Info About Fraudulent Transactions To Law Enforcement Agencies

The Delhi High Court has directed the Indian Banks Association (IBA) to hold a meeting to ensure that all banks follow the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in respect of providing information on fraudulent transactions to the law enforcement agencies.

Justice Prathiba M Singh observed that the SOP and the manner in which it has to be implemented by all the banks is still a work in progress.

“Let the IBA hold the meeting of the concerned sub-groups and sub-committee in order to ensure that all Banks follow the SOP in respect of information disclosure mechanism to the law enforcement agencies,” the court ordered.

The court was dealing with a batch of petitions concerning proliferation of fraudulent domain names, filed by trademark and brand owners seeking reliefs against misuse of their marks and names by unauthorized persons, who register such marks as part of their domain names. The pleas also raised the issue of fraudulent transactions resulting in innocent customers being duped.

The court was informed that pursuant to its order, a meeting was called by RBI where the law enforcement agencies clearly expressed that the banks ought to expedite the process of providing the information on fraudulent transactions.

Justice Singh was further informed that the IBA and RBI had taken cognizance of the entire issue.

Accordingly, the court issued notice to the Senior Advisor of and asked him to appear before it so that the stand of all the banks can be considered.

The matter will now be heard on April 06.

Earlier, the court had directed the concerned Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs to call a meeting of Cyber Crime Cells in various states to ensure coordination while dealing with cases involving fraudulent transactions.

It had observed that RBI needs to take steps to curb malpractices where amounts have been accepted by banks in the names of well-known companies but the bank account stands in the name of third party.

The court had also asked the counsel appearing for RBI to seek instructions as to whether the regulatory authority can issue guidelines making it mandatory for banks to match beneficiary's name or name in the billing details with the account holder's name “and not merely the account number” whenever banks accept online or offline payments.

Case Title: Dabur India Limited v. Ashok Kumar and Ors (and other connected matters) 

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 145

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