In Re: Victims of Digital Arrest Related to Forged Documents (2026), Supreme Court's 3-Judge Bench of Chief Justice Suryakant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana passed a 15-page long order dated August 4, 2026, wherein, it issued the following interim directions:
i. The RBI shall, within four weeks, formally
adopt and circulate the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) prescribing
the action to be taken by banks for placing temporary debit holds on
amounts or accounts linked to money-mule activity and cyber-enabled
fraud. A copy of the final SOP shall be furnished to I4C and to the
Registrars General of all High Courts. The RBI is also directed to
implement the delayed transaction safeguard/lagged credit mechanism and
Customer Protection in Electronic Banking Transactions.
ii. All the
States, Union Territories and law enforcement agencies are directed for
expeditious adoption and operationalisation of the two modules, namely,
Grievance Redressal and Money Restoration Modules under the MHA’s SOP
concerning “NCRP-CFCFRMS, Custody and Restoration of Money and Grievance
Redressal” dated 02.01.2026. They shall also take steps for public awareness of the two modules.
iii.
The Registrars General of all High Courts shall bring the Grievance
Redressal Mechanism to the notice of the Courts and other adjudicating
authorities dealing with freezing of bank accounts in cyber-fraud cases.
An aggrieved person may ordinarily be encouraged to avail that
mechanism in the first instance, though it shall not be a bar to any
constitutional, statutory or other legal remedy. The next status report
shall apprise us about the State-wise and bank-wise statement of
grievances registered and disposed of, restoration orders issued,
restorations completed and amounts restored.
iv. The remaining States
and the Union Territories are directed to take steps to notify and
operationalise their State Cybercrime Coordination Centres within four
weeks. They shall also take steps to adopt e-Zero FIR mechanism in
consultation with I4C. The Ministry of Home Affairs shall provide the
requisite assistance in this regard.
v. The Inter-Departmental
Committee is directed to issue necessary directives, advisories and
instructions to all States, Union Territories, Ministries and Government
Departments to undertake and promote awareness programmes about
cyber-crimes, grievance redressal and money restoration modules, and
allied concerns.
vi. The Inter-Departmental Committee is further
directed to consult with the intermediaries and banks regarding the
possible technological steps that may be undertaken to (i) prevent
digital arrest, (ii) assist in recovering the defrauded amount, (iii)
assist in the investigation of digital arrest, and (iv) cooperate and
discharge their obligations under all relevant laws and provisions for
due compliance of law.
vii. We also deem it appropriate to direct all
the State Legal Service Authorities to immediately formulate schemes
for public awareness of cyber-crimes, digital arrest scams, and cyber
security, as well as developing schemes/policies for assistance in
recovering any defrauded amount(s).
viii. The Inter-Departmental
Committee is directed to discuss the proposal of a shared-liability and
victim-compensation framework. The status report in this regard shall be
submitted before the next date of hearing.
ix. All adjudicating
authorities including RBI Ombudsman, Consumer Protection fora,
jurisdictional Courts and law enforcement agencies are directed to
ensure that the amounts recovered are disbursed to the victims of
digital arrest in an expeditious manner. A status report of the progress
in this regard shall be filed before the next date of hearing.
x.
The CBI, while continuing with the investigation in terms of the
previous directions, is directed to examine the suggestions given in the
status report filed by learned Attorney General for reduction of the
present threshold of Rs.10 crores and aggregation of cases involving the
same organised network. A separate status report in this regard be
filed before the next date of hearing.
xi. The proposal concerning a
time-based “kill switch” for audio and video calls may be examined by
the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Department
of Telecommunications and I4C in consultation with the affected
intermediaries and let a brief note on its technical feasibility,
efficacy, safeguards and alternatives to be placed on record before the
next date of hearing.
xii. The Inter-Departmental Committee shall
continue to coordinate implementation of the above measures and consult
intermediaries and banks on technological steps for prevention, recovery
and investigation of defrauded amounts through digital arrest scams. A
fresh consolidated status report shall be filed in this regard with
advance on the learned Amicus Curiae.
xiii. The Inter-Departmental
Committee is further directed to consider all the consolidated
suggestions/recommendations that have been made by the learned Amicus
Curiae.
xiv. The Department of Telecommunications is directed to
submit an Action Taken Report against the errant Telecom Service
Providers/PoS agents which caused the digital arrest scams. A status
report shall also respond on the suggestion for a unified dashboard to
remove the menace of SIM Card abuse, including issuance of duplicate SIM
cards or the misuse of Know Your Customer (KYC), processes for issuance
of additional SIMs, etc.
These matters are posted for further consideration on September 16, 2026. The Court had passed order dated December 1, 2025, order dated December 16, 2025 and order dated February 9, 2026, wherein, it issued interim directions to secure a coordinated response to the menace of digital-arrest scams in India. Those directions concern investigations by the CBI, mule accounts, misuse of SIM cards and SIM boxes, cooperation by intermediaries, grievance redressal, restoration of defrauded money and institutional coordination.
The Attorney General for India has placed on record the Fourth Status Report dated August 3, 2026 filed by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), Ministry of Home Affairs. The Report incorporates the deliberations of the fourth and fifth meetings of the Inter-Departmental Committee held on May 11, 2026 and July 14, 2026 and the action taken by the concerned ministries, regulators, investigating agencies, telecom service providers and intermediaries.
The Report states that the number of complaints received on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal pertaining to digital arrest scams have sharply declined from 1,23,672 in 2024 to 58,239 in 2025 and stood at 16,377 for the period ending June 30, 2026. The corresponding reported defrauded amounts have also
substantially reduced.
The Fourth Status Report records that the data-sharing MoU between the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub and I4C was executed on May 11, 2026, and the Grievance Redressal Mechanism Portal now covers 1,23,590 branches of 69 banks. The Money Restoration Mechanism Portal has 57 participating banks and
all 36 States and Union Territories, with restoration completed in 36,290 cases for an aggregate amount of Rs. 18.05 crores.
The e-Zero FIR mechanism is operational in 19 States. Only 14 States have notified their State Cybercrime Coordination Centres. The Telecommunications (Radio Equipment Possession Authorisation) Rules, 2025 have been notified. The Telecommunications (User Identification) Rules, 2025 are at the final stage of notification.
CBI presently registered ten digital-arrest cases and several related cases. In one investigation, it identified 238 victims, 67 first-layer bank 11 accounts, transactions of approximately Rs. 80 crores, and conducted searches at 93 locations around 16 States.
The Inter-Departmental Committee has requested the CBI to examine the feasibility of lowering the existing threshold of Rs. 10 crores for commencing investigation(s), and also to consider taking up cases involving the same organised network where the cumulative fraud amounts exceed the prescribed threshold.
This suo motu writ petition (criminal) case was filed, registered and verified on October 14, 2025.
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