Supreme Court: In a matter concerning the growing menace of digital arrest scams and other cyber frauds, a three-Judge Bench of Surya Kant, CJ with Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana, JJ., emphasised that the regulatory measures proposed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) must mandate financial institutions to indemnify victims and pay compensation not less than the amount lost, where the fraud is established to have occurred due to their failure to exercise due diligence. The Court further underscored the need for preventive safeguards, including temporarily suspending suspicious transactions, automatically intimating the nearest police station and physically verifying such transactions to ascertain their genuineness.
The present matter concerns the growing menace of digital arrest scams and other cyber frauds. The Amicus Curiae, vide note dated 14 October 2026, had suggested various measures and consequential directions to address the issue. In response, the learned Attorney General for India, on behalf of the Union of India, placed a note dated 28 October 2026 on record, suggesting certain directions.
The Court, while expressing its inclination to issue appropriate directions in light of the suggestions made by the learned Amicus Curiae and the Union of India, considered it appropriate, in the first instance, to examine the Reserve Bank of India (Know Your Customer) Amendment Directions, 2026, proposed to be notified by 30 November 2026 and operationalised by 31 December 2026.
The Court reiterated and emphasised that the regulatory measures proposed by RBI must mandate and incorporate suitable provisions requiring financial institutions to indemnify victims of digital arrest scams and other cyber frauds and pay suitable compensation not less than the amount lost by the customer, where it is established that the fraud or crime occurred due to the failure of the financial institution to exercise due diligence in preventing or reporting the act/incident.
The Court further emphasised the need for preventive safeguards to be mandated for every financial institution. These may include temporarily suspending unusual or suspicious transactions inconsistent with the account’s past transaction history, automatically intimating such transactions to the nearest police station and subsequently physically verifying the reported transactions to ascertain their genuineness.
The Court allowed IA No. 167477/2026 (application for intervention), permitting the applicant(s) to intervene in the matter.
To ensure effective implementation of the regulatory measures proposed by RBI, as well as the directions issued by the Court, RBI was directed to submit a list of all authorised financial institutions before the Court on the next date of hearing.
Further, all law enforcement agencies in the States and Union Territories were directed to submit the status of the FIRs registered thus far in connection with digital arrest scam cases, details of the resultant investigations undertaken and suggestions for appropriate measures for the prevention, detection and prosecution of such cases. The Directors General of Police of all States and Union Territories were directed to ensure compliance with these directions. The information furnished to the Court shall simultaneously be forwarded to the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).
Additionally, WhatsApp LLC (a Meta Company) and other intermediaries concerned were directed to apprise the Court of the measures they propose to undertake to prevent digital arrest scams and related cybercrimes. They were also directed to simultaneously submit their proposals to the I4C.
The matter was directed to be listed for further consideration on 23 November 2026.
Also Read: SC Issues Interim Directions on Digital Arrest Scams | SCC Times
[Victims of Digital Arrest Related to Forged Documents, In re, Suo Moto Writ Petition (Criminal) No(s). 3 of 2025, decided on 29-10-2026]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
N.S. Nappinai, Sr. Adv. (A.C.) Ms. Sthavi Asthana, AOR Mr. K.V.D. Kishore Kumar, Adv. Mr. Shubham Chandra, Advocates
For the Petitioners: Nupur Sharma, Adv. Mr. Manan Popli, Adv. Mr. Abhinav Agrawal, AOR Ms. Apurva Gaur, Adv. Ms. Priya Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Piyush Bhardwaj, Adv. Mr. Shivam Sengupta, Adv. Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal- 909, AOR Dr. Mahendra Limaye, Adv. Mr. Alok Sharma, Adv. Dr. Tushar Mandlekar, Adv. Mr. Raghvendra Kumar- 3443, AOR By Courts Motion
For the Respondent: R. Venkataramani, Attorney General for India Mr. Anandh Venkataramani, Adv. Ms. Ameyavikrama Thanvi, Adv. Ms. Anjali Agrawal, Adv. Mr. Kartikay Aggarwal, Adv. Ms. Gayathri Venugopal, Adv. Mr. Dr. Mahendra Limaye, Adv. Mr. Alok Sharma, Adv. Mr. Rathod Rajesh Ranjit, AOR Mr. Naresh Kr. Srivastava, Adv. Mr. Abhay Warik, Adv. Mr. Ramesh Babu M.R., Sr. Adv. Ms. Manisha Singh, Adv., Ms. Nisha Sharma, Adv. Ms. Tanya Chowdhary, Adv. Ms. Mukti Chowdhary- 1792, AOR Mr. Rajesh Kumar Chaurasia- 2533, AOR Mr. Gaurav Gupta, Adv. Mr. Surya Pratap, Adv. Mr. Hem Kumar, Adv. Mr. Sujeet Kumar, Adv. Mr. Shailendra Kumar Nirmal, Adv. Mr. Dharav Shah, Adv. Mr. Pranaya Goyal- 2480, AOR Mr. R. Sudhinder, Adv. Ms. Ekta Bhasin, Adv. Ms. Aastha Trivedi, Adv. Mr. Anand Amit, Adv. Ms. Anushka Sharma, Adv. Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan- 1573, AOR Mr. Sumit Goel, Adv. Ms. Sreeparna Basak, Adv. Mr. Aditya Sharma, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Thakral, Adv. Ms. Sharen Joel, Adv. Mr. Kshitij Padhi, Adv. Mr. Aditya Francis, Adv. M/S. Parekh & Co.- 1370, AOR Mr. D. Bharat Kumar, Adv. Mr. Aman Shukla, Adv. Mr. M. Chandrakanth Reddy, Adv. Mr. Thandra Sai Yeshwanth Goud, Adv. Mr. Kadali Vali Baba, Adv. Mr. Gopal Jha, AOR Mr. Nand Kishore Sharma, Adv. Mr. Shyam Gopal, AOR Mr. P. Krishnadevan, Adv. Ms. Nikita Bhardwaj, Adv. Mr. Sankara Narayanan B, Adv. Ms. Aishwarya Mishra- 4062 , AOR Mr. Anuj Chauhan, Adv. Mr. S.surender, Adv. Mr. Shubham Garg, Adv. Mr. Lakshit Rajgaur, Adv. Ms. Akansha Singh, Adv. Mr. Akshay Amritanshu- 3121, AOR, Mr. Pradeep Kumar Rai, Sr. Adv. Mr. Ali Mohd Magrey, Sr. Adv. Mr. N Pradeep Sharma, Adv. Mr. Vinay Kumar Rai, Adv. Mrs. Rajshree Rai, Adv. Mr. Ashok Pratap Rai, Adv. Ms. Modoyia Kayina, Adv. Mr. Vijay Kumar Seth, Adv. Mr. Shivam Tyagi, Adv. Mr. Abhinav S Raghuvanshi, Adv. Mr. Anil Kumar Agarwal, Adv. M/S. R And R Law Associates- 2851, AOR Mr. K.S.krgawkar Sr. Advocate/Adv. Mr. Kailash Prashad Pandey- 2399, AOR Mr. Dinesh Kumar Mudgal, Adv. Mr. Hitesh Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Amit Kumar Chawla, Adv. Mr. Akhileshwar Jha, Adv. Mr. Anupam Kumar, Adv. Mr. Varun Varma, Adv. Mr. Satvik Sharma, Adv. Mr. Narendra Pal Sharma, Adv. Ms. Savita Kaushik, Adv. Ms. Swati Vishan, Adv. Ms. Shreya Jha, Adv. Ms. Asmita Mishra, Adv. Ms. Rashmi Prava Mohanty, Adv. Ms. Divya Mishra, Adv. Ms. Suresh Kumari, Adv. Ms. Charanjeet Sidhu, Adv. Ms. Niharika Dwivedi, Adv. Mr. Mahi Pal Singh, Adv. Mr. Kailash Chandra Mudgal, Adv. Mr. Rakesh Vishan, Adv. Mr. Kamlesh Kumar Pandey, Adv. Mr. Kishor Kumar Pandey, Adv. Mr. Lalit Dixit, Adv. Mr. Honey Sharma, Adv. Mr. Pawan Kumar, Adv. Ms. Seema Yadav, Adv. Mr. Ajay Kumar- 1637, AOR Mr. Nishesh Sharma- 2522, AOR Mr. Vishnu Sharma, Standing Counsel, Adv. Ms. Madhusmita Bora, AOR Mr. Riju Raj Singh Jamwal, Adv. Ms. Pavithra V., Adv. Mr. Vaibhav Chechi, Adv. Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria- 2324, AOR, Mr. Rituparn Uniyal- 4135, AOR Mr. Abhishek Usha Singh, Adv. Ms. Deeksha Saggi, Adv. Mr. James P. Thomas- 2398, AOR Mr. Ravi Sagar, Adv. Ms. Glorina George, Adv. Mr. Divyakant Lahoti- 2188, AOR Mr. Kartik Lahoti, Adv. Ms. Akanksha Soni, Adv. Ms. Shubheksha Dwivedi, Adv. Ms. Gayatri Bharadwaj, Adv. Ms. Madhur Jhavar, Adv. Ms. Vindhya Mehra, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Tripathi, Adv. Ms. Shubhi Vijaywargiya, Adv. Mr. Parth Rathore, Adv. Mr. Aryan Tomar, Adv. Mr. Vivek Sharma- 3260, AOR Dr. Vijay Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Basava Prabhu S Patil, Adv. Gen. Mr. Sameer Abhyankar- 2516, AOR Mr. Krishna Rastogi, Adv. Mr. Aryan Srivastava, Adv. Mr. Arijeet Shukla, Adv. Mr. Samarth Kashyap, Adv. Mr. Nalin Talwar, Adv. Mr. S. Mahendran- 1526, AOR Ms. Akansha- 4029, AOR Ms. Eliza Barr, Adv. Mr. Pavan Kumar- 1217, AOR Mrs. Neelam, Adv. Mr. Akhlesh Kumar Soni, Adv. Mr. Sandeep Ratra, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Kumar, Adv. Mr. Pavan Kumar- 1217, AOR Mrs. Neelam, Adv. Mr. Akhlesh Kumar Soni, Adv. Mr. Sandeep Ratra, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Kumar, Adv. Mr. Lenin Singh Hijam, Attorney General Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar- 1593, AOR Mr. Karun Sharma, Adv. Ms. Anupama Ngangom, Adv. Ms. Rajkumari Divyasana, Adv., Mr. Vaibhav Srivastava, A.A.G. Ms. Sugandha Anand- 3167, AOR Mr. Chetan Anand Mohapatra, Adv. Mr. Mohd Danish Azad, Adv. Mr. Ramesh Babu M.r, Sr. Adv. Ms. Manisha Singh, Adv. Ms. Nisha Sharma, Adv. Ms. Tanya Chowdhary, Adv. Ms. Mukti Chowdhary- 1792, AOR Mr. Anurag Kulharia- 4427, AOR Mr. Harshad V. Hameed- 2127, AOR Mr. Mahesh Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Rishi Agrawala, Adv. Ms. Madhavi Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Maj. Nirvikar Singh, Adv. Mr. E. C. Agrawala- 177, AOR Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv. Mr. Mukul Rohatgi, Sr. Adv. Mr. Vivek Reddy, Sr. Adv. Mr. Shashank Mishra, Adv. Ms. Swati Agarwal, Adv. Ms. Akshi Rastogi, Adv. Ms. Ritika Bansal, Adv. Ms. Anupama Reddy Eleti, Adv. Ms. Aparajita Jamwal, Adv. Ms. Devanshi Singh, Adv. Mr. Pival Peddireddi, Adv. Mr. S. S. Shroff- 710, AOR Mr. Vishnu Sharma- 1423, AOR Mr. Nirmal Kumar Pandey (vc), Adv. Mrs. Anupama Sharma, Adv. Mr. Amar Jyoti Sharma, Adv. Mr. Neeraj Kumar Vats, Adv. Ms. Prerna Panwar, Adv. Ms. Saanvi Singh, Adv. Ms. Srishti Vats, Adv. Mr. Nitin Bajpai, Adv. Mr. Sudarshan Singh Rawat- 1661, AOR Mr. Madhav Gupta, Adv. Mr. Sunny Sachin Rawat, Adv. Mr. Avijit Mani Tripathi- 2648, AOR Mr. Z.H. Isaac Haiding, Adv. Mr. Daniel Stone Lyngdoh, Adv. Ms. Marbiang Khongwir, Adv., Mr. Avijit Mani Tripathi, AOR Mr. Shaurya Sahay, Adv. Mr. Aditya S. Pandey, Adv. Mr. Marbiang Khongwir, Adv. Ms. Preeti Sehrawat, Adv. Mrs. Yugandhara Pawar Jha- 2514, AOR Ms. K. V. Bharathi Upadhyaya- 1589, AOR Ms. Pritama, Adv. Mr. Sufyan Hasan, Adv. Ms. Shaivani Gupta, Adv. Ms. Disha Singh- 3175 , AOR Ms. Eliza Barr, Adv. Ms. Akansha, Adv. Ms. Anjali Saxena, Adv. Mr. Govind Sharma, Adv. Mr. Saanil Patnayak, Adv. Mr. R. Venkataramani, Attorney General for India Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General Mr. Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar, A.S.G. Mr. Mayank Pandey, Adv. Mr. Madhav Sinhal, Adv. Ms. Mili Baxi, Adv. Mr. Gaurav Arya, Adv. Mr. Bhuvan Kapoor, Adv. Mr. Chitvan Singhal, Adv. Mr. Raman Yadav, Adv. Mr. Kartikay Aggarwal, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Kumar Pandey, Adv. Ms. Ameyavikrama Thanvi, Adv. Mr. Amrish Kumar- 2986, AOR Dr. Arun Kumar Yadav, Adv. Mr. B.l.n Sanjit, Adv. Ms. Rajeshwari Shankar, Adv. Mr. Mukesh Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Divyam Aggarwal, Adv. Mr. Manoj K. Mishra, AOR Mr. Umesh Dubey, Adv. Ms. Madhulika, Adv. Mr. Amulya Dev Mishra, Adv. Ms. Shriji Mishra, Adv. Mr. Amrendra Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Shashank Tiwari, Adv. Mr. Sarthak Tiwari, Adv. Mr. P. I. Jose- 1206, AOR Mr. Jose Augustine, Adv. Mr. Dr. Mahesh Y Reddy, Adv. Mr. Atul Arvind, Adv., Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal- 909, AOR Mr. Mayank Pandey, Adv. Mr. Madhav Sinhal, Adv. Mr. Gaurav Arya, Adv. Mr. Bhuvan Kapoor, Adv. Mr. Kartikeya Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Chitvan Singhal, Adv. Ms. Mili Joy Baxi, Adv. Mr. Mukesh Kr. Verma, Adv. Mr. Varun Chugh, Adv. Ms. Indira Bhakar, Adv. Mr. Krishna Kant Dubey, Adv. Mr. Prashant Singh- 3583, AOR Mr. Kamal Kumar Pandey, Adv. Mr. Mukesh Verma, Adv. Mrs. Vatsala Tripathi, Adv. Ms. Manisha, Adv. Mr. Shashank Singh, AOR Mr. G P Mahto, Adv. Ms. Manisha Ambwani- 2394, AOR Ms. Ruchira Goel- 2477, AOR Mr. Jai Anant Dehadrai- 4013, AOR Ms. Yashvi Aswani, Adv. Mr. Ram Pravesh Dubey, Adv. Mr. Apurva Chatterji, Adv. Mr. Rakshan Saini, Adv. Mr. Amit Kumar Pathak- 2647, AOR Mr. Sanjai Kumar Pathak, AOR Mrs. Shashi Pathak, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Tripathi, Adv. Ms. Anamika Mishra, Adv. Mr. Guntur Pramod Kumar- 2788, AOR Ms. Prerna Singh, Adv. Mr. Shreeyash Uday Lalit, Adv. Ms. Rakshita, Adv. Mr. Shovan Mishra- 2456, AOR Mr. Binay Kumar- 4435, AOR Mr. Shiv Mangal Sharma, A.A.G. Ms. Sonali Gaur, Adv. Mr. Saurabh Rajpal- 3577, AOR, Dr. Mahendra Limaye, Adv. Mr. Alok Sharma, Adv. Ms. Nayan Gupta, Adv. Mr. Nisheeth Dixit, Adv. Mr. Abhay Warik, Adv. Ms. Sthavi Asthana- 4038, AOR Mr. Aravindh S.- 2008, AOR Mr. Aadithya Aravindh, Adv. Ms. Anika Bansal, Adv. Mr. Ravindra Sadanand Chingale- 2659, AOR Mr. Avishkar Singhvi, A.A.G. Mr. Rajesh Gulab Inamdar- 3386, AOR Mr. Shashwat Anand, Adv. Mr. Divya Prabha Singh, Adv. Ms. Sakshi Raman, Adv. Ms. Rakshita Singh, Adv. Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande- 3259, AOR Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv. Mr. Shrirang B. Varma, Adv. Mr. Sourav Singh, Adv. Ms. Chitransha Singh Sikarwar, Adv. Ms. Baani Khanna, AOR Mr. Robin Singh, Adv. Mr. Kapil Balwani, Adv. Ms. Komal Thakkar, Adv. Ms. Tejal Tapaswani Nagauri, Adv. Ms. Swati Ghildiyal, AOR Ms. Sonakshi Sinha, Adv. Mr. Apoorv Shukla- 2830, AOR Ms. Nidhi Jaswal- 2955, AOR Mr. Chinmoy Sharma, Sr. A.A.G. Mr. Shuvodeep Roy- 1672, AOR Mr. Saurabh Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Deepayan Dutta, Adv. Mr. Kumar Abhishek, Adv. Mr. Irfan Hasieb, Adv. Mr. Vijay Deora, Adv. Mr. Aditya Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Rajiv Kumar Virmani- 3554, AOR Mr. Akashdeep Rajput, Adv. Mr. Ahanthem Henry, Adv. Mr. Ahanthem Rohen Singh, Adv., Mr. Mohan Singh, Adv. Mr. Aniket Rajput, Adv. Ms. Khoisnam Nirmala Devi, Adv. Mr. Yeshu Mehta, Adv. Mr. Tanay Hegde, Adv. Mr. Kumar Mihir- 2116, AOR Mr. Prashant Kumar Umrao- 3563, AOR Dr. Sunil Kumar Agarwal- 3382, AOR Mr. Amarjeet Sahani, Adv. Ms. Shweta Bhardwaj, Adv. Mrs. Mamta Singh, Adv. Mrs. Amita Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Anuj Kumar Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Madan Lal Daga, Adv. Mr. Manoj Kumar Yadav, Adv. Mr. Prakhar Dixit, Adv. Mr. Daleep Singh, Adv. Mr. Fahimuddin Khan, Adv. Dr. Prasangi Jannu, Adv. Mr. Dere Kishor Shankar, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Srivastava- 1344, AOR Mr. Rahul Kumar, Adv. Mr. Anil Kumar Gaur, Adv. Mrs. Deepika Singh, Adv. Ms. Riddhi Gupta, Adv. Mr. Vikram Hegde, AOR Ms. Karina Chawla, Adv. Mr. Subramanian Rajaseshan, Adv. Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, AOR Mr. Amit Kumar Singh, Adv. Ms. Chubalemla Chang, Adv. Mr. Prang Newmai, Adv. Ms. Yanmi Phazang,, Adv. Ms. Devina Sehgal, AOR Mr. Srikanth Varma Mudunuru, Adv. Mr. Apoorv Shukla, Adv. Mr. Vinayak Sharma, Adv. Mrs. Prabhleen A. Shukla, Adv. Mr. Ravinder Kumar Yadav, AOR Mr. Abhishek Ritabh Shukla- 3307, AOR Mr. Naman Jain, Adv. Dr. Ashish Asthana, Adv. Mr. Aljo K. Joseph- 2529, AOR Mr. Ajay M, Adv., Mr. Sashwat Mishra, Adv. Mr. Naveen Sharma- 2407, AOR Ms. Charu Ambwani- 2701, AOR Mr. Tomy Chacko, AOR Ms. Lakshmi Kg, Adv. Ms. Tualia Rehman, Adv. Mr. Rupesh Kemwal, Adv. Mr. Mustafa Ali, Adv. Mr. Amit Sharma, AOR Mr. Dipesh Sinha, Adv. Ms. Pallavi Barua, Adv. Ms. Aparna Singh, Adv. Mr. B. Karunakaran- 3845, AOR Mr. Akhil Krishnan A, Adv. Mr. Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar, ASG Mr. Devraj Bhattacharjee, Adv. Ms. Rajeshwari Shankar, Adv. Mr. Mayank Pandey, Adv. Mr. Mukesh Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Divyam Aggarwal, Adv. Mr. Aditya Kumar, Adv. Mrs. Ashok Chhabra, Adv. Mr. Mohit D. Ram, Adv. Mr. Nayan Gupta, Adv. Mr. Tejas Rai, Adv. Dr. Ravindra Chingale, Adv. Mr. Karan Singh Rajput, Adv. Ms. Sumbul A., Adv. Mr. Shekhar Raj Sharma, AAG Ms. Nidhi Narwal, Adv. Ms. Srishti Jain, Adv. Mr. Gyaaneshwar Joshi, Adv. Mr. Anurag Kulharia, AOR Mr. Vishnu Sharma, AOR Mr. Rakesh Kumar, Adv. Mr. R. Venkataramani, Attorney General for India Ms. Ameyavikrama Thanvi, Adv. Ms. Anjali Agrawal, Adv. Mr. Anandh Venkataramani, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Kumar Pandey, Adv. Mr. Chitvan Singhal, Adv. Ms. Yamika Khanna, Adv. Ms. Deboshree Mukherjee, Adv. Mr. Kartikay Aggarwal, Adv., Ms. Thajaswini C.B., Adv. Ms. Gayathri Venugopal, Advocates
