Punjab & Haryana High Court Asks Union To Prioritise SOP On Redressal Mechanism Against Freezing Of Bank Accounts
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked Union Government to prioritise framing of Standard Operating System (SOP) to address the grievances of those whose banks accounts are seized, pursuant to alleged criminal activities.
Justice Kuldeep Tiwari while hearing a batch of petitions wherein freezing of accounts were challenged said, "its is expected that considering the difficulties, as being faced by the petitioner(s), on account of the fact that their bank accounts, have been ordered to be seized, and they do not have any remedy for redressal of their grievance, the respondent-Union of India, shall take up the matter on priority basis, and would take a final decision thereof, which shall be communicated to this Court, on or before the next date of hearing."
The Court had asked the Union to come up with the Standard Operating System (SOP) to address the grievances.
In the last hearing ASG Satya Pal Jain submitted that the draft SOP has already been prepared, however, some more issues have cropped up during approval of the SOP, by the competent authority concerned, and now, the Ministry of Home, in consultation with Ministry of Law, would come with a legal and apt SOP, which shall deal with the comprehensive issues, as raised through the instant petitions.
In another petition challenging the freezing of account, which was tagged along with the batch of cases, the Court had issued notice to the Union Government and other authorities.
It was alleged that HDFC Bank had frozen the bank account of the petitioner (MM Shoppe), who was running a mattress business at DLF City Centre Mall, Gurugram, because it had transacted with a buyer (Paramount Energy Solution INC) which is alleged to be involved in a cybercrime.
The plea further states that when the petitioner demanded reasons for such an action or the office communication received by the HDFC Bank (the Bank) from Cyber Cell West Bengal in this regard , he was directed to approach the Investigating Officer.
The Petitioner states that to establish his bona fides, he furnished all available information regarding Paramount Energy Solutions NIC to the Investigating Officer via WhatsApp or through his counsel via email. The plea states that the bank account of the Petitioner remains frozen without compliance of the mandate under Section 106 Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 (BNSS).
Section 106 BNSS provides for procedure to be followed by the Police Officer for seizing property.
When the petitioner sought the details of the FIR registered, or details of the pending cyber-crime complaint from the Bank & the Cyber Cell, the Petitioner did not received any response regarding the same.
The plea highlighted that the Petitioner needs to make and receive payments using this account in order to run his business and if he fail to make such payments in time, the Petitioner will have to incur penalty charges and interest on delayed payments.
The matter will now be heard along with batch of petitions on September 30.
Title: M SHOPPE THROUGH ITS PROPRIETOR, GURINDERJIT SINGH BAWA v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS.
Ms. Prabhneer Swani, Advocate, and Mr. Shubhkarman Gill, Advocate, for the petitioner
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Title: JASPREET SINGH v. UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS
Mr. Ferry Sofat, Advocate for the petitioner(s) (in CWP-14126 and CWP-12003-2024).
Mr. Baljinder Singh, Advocate for the petitioner(s) (in CWP-5399-2025 and CWP-35176-2024).
Mr. Hariom Sharma, Advocate and Mr. Jasvinder Singh Yadav, Advocate for the petitioner (in CWP-1039-2025).
Mr. Paras Jagga, Advocate for the petitioner(s) (in CWP-8409-2025 and CWP-2010-2025) and other
Mr Anirudh Gupta, Mr Angad Pahel Advocates for the Petitioner in CWP-22027 of 2024
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