Kartik Yogeshwar Chatur Vs Union of India & Ors. (Bombay High Court)
In Kartik Yogeshwar Chatur Vs Union of India & Ors., the Bombay High Court considered a common question across several petitions: whether an investigating agency has the power to debit freeze a bank account under Section 106 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS).
The petitioners’ accounts had been debit frozen on the ground that cyber fraud had occurred and part of the alleged fraudulent amount had been credited to their accounts. During the hearing, the Court noted that in some cases the investigating agency had issued communications to banks requesting debit freezing of accounts. However, in several cases no such communication had been produced before the Court, raising uncertainty as to how banks had independently proceeded to debit freeze the accounts.
The Court observed that petitioners were at liberty to seek compensation through appropriate proceedings for such actions if they so desired. It also noted that in certain cases transfers of amounts had been carried out pursuant to orders of a Magistrate, which were not under challenge.
The Court examined the legal position under Section 106 of the BNSS. It referred to a judgment of the Kerala High Court in Headstar Global Pvt. Limited vs State of Kerala, which relied on earlier decisions of the Supreme Court of India interpreting Section 102 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the provision that Section 106 of the BNSS replaced. According to those decisions, police officers were empowered to seize property that was either stolen or found in circumstances creating suspicion of an offence.
