NEW DELHI: In a bid to end "digital arrest" fraud cases, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the RBI to create a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in four weeks for the nationwide rollout of grievance and restoration modules.
It also passed 13 interim directions to strengthen the fight against "digital arrest" scams, calling for faster implementation and wider adoption of existing mechanisms.
A Bench headed by CJI Surya Kant said the Court’s earlier orders of December 2025 and February 2026 sought coordinated action on CBI probes, mule accounts, SIM box misuse, and grievance redressal.
The top court on Tuesday passed 13 interim directions to stop the menace of digital arrest cases.
The Court directed the RBI to prepare and circulate an SOP for mule accounts/cyber fraud accounts in 4 weeks.
"All States, UTs and law enforcement agencies to expeditiously adopt the grievance redressal module and money restoration module under MHA SOP dated 2 January 2026 and must ensure public awareness. To inform all Courts dealing with bank account freezes about the mechanism. Availing it won’t bar other legal remedies," the apex court said.
The Bench further directed that the next status report must contain State-wise and bank-wise data on grievances registered/disposed, restoration orders issued/completed, and amounts restored.
The court ordered that the remaining States which have not yet done so are directed to notify and operationalise their State Cyber Crime Coordination Centres within four weeks; and take steps to adopt the e-Zero FIR mechanism, in consultation with I4C.
I4C (Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) shall ensure necessary follow-up and provide the requisite assistance to the States for implementation of these directions. Authorities to ensure expeditious disposal of account freezing matters in cyber frauds. IDC (Inter Departmental Committee) to issue directions for awareness on cybercrimes, redressal/restoration modules, MHA SOP, and recovery measures," the Bench added in its order.
In order to prevent any kind of digital arrest cases, the IDC must consult on tech measures to prevent scams, aid recovery, facilitate investigation, and ensure compliance.
"We recommend running awareness drives immediately on prevention, cybercrime, cyber security, and recovery assistance. IDC to examine proposal for shared liability and victim compensation. IDC to examine reduction of CBI’s Rs 10 crore threshold and aggregation of network cases," the Bench stated.
The Court further added that TelecMeitY, DoT and I4C to examine time-based restrictions on audio/video calls. Note on feasibility, use cases, safeguards to be filed next.
"DoT to keep coordinating with banks and stakeholders on tech measures. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) in its fourth status report informed the Court of IDC meetings held on May 11 and July 2026. The data shows results: complaints dropped from 1.23 lakh in 2024 to 58,249 in 2025 to 16,377 till June 2026. The Court noted the decline in defrauded amounts too," the Court noted, before passing the slew of directions.
The Court listed the matter for further hearing on September 16 2026. The Bench in its order noted that the CBI has 10 digital arrest cases and one network involved 238 victims, 67 accounts and Rs 80 crore, with searches in 16 States.
It is to be noted that digital arrest is a growing form of cybercrime in which fraudsters pose as law enforcement or court officials or personnel from government agencies to intimidate victims through audio and video calls.
The top court registered the suo motu case on digital arrest scams in October 2025, after a senior citizen couple wrote to the Supreme Court stating that they were defrauded of Rs 1.5 crore between September 1 and 16 by scammers impersonating as officials of the CBI, Intelligence Bureau and the judiciary.
The fraudsters had contacted them through phone and video conference and showed them forged Supreme Court orders to coerce payment under threat of arrest.
On December 1, last year, the Supreme Court in its order had asked the CBI to carry out a detailed and unified pan-India probe into the digital arrest scam cases and asked the RBI as to why it was not using Artificial Intelligence to find out and freeze bank accounts used by cyber criminals.
"The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) shall have a free hand to investigate the role of bankers under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act wherever they are found involved in opening of mule accounts used in cyber crime cases", the Bench had said earlier in its order.
