The Supreme Court has issued 13 interim directions aimed at strengthening India’s fight against digital arrest scams, directing the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Centre, state governments and law enforcement agencies to tighten cyber fraud prevention, improve victim support and speed up the recovery of stolen funds.
Hearing the suo motu case on digital arrest scams, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said the measures are intended to ensure faster implementation and wider adoption of existing anti-cyber fraud mechanisms across the country. The court has given the RBI four weeks to prepare and circulate a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for handling mule accounts and cyber fraud-linked bank accounts.
The SOP will introduce a uniform framework for banks to deal with suspicious accounts while integrating grievance redressal and money restoration mechanisms for victims. The court also directed states, Union Territories and law enforcement agencies to actively promote these systems and spread public awareness so victims can access them quickly.
To strengthen the cybercrime response, the court ordered all remaining states and Union Territories to operationalise State Cyber Crime Coordination Centres within four weeks and implement the e-Zero FIR mechanism with assistance from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C). Authorities have also been directed to ensure the swift disposal of cases involving frozen bank accounts linked to cyber fraud.
The inter-departmental committee overseeing the issue has been tasked with coordinating awareness campaigns, strengthening technology-based safeguards, improving recovery of stolen funds and supporting investigations. It will also examine proposals to introduce a shared liability and victim compensation framework, lower the existing ₹10 crore threshold for CBI investigations into cyber fraud, and allow multiple cases linked to the same organised network to be clubbed together for central investigation.
The Supreme Court further directed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the I4C to study the feasibility of imposing time-based restrictions on audio and video calling services that are frequently misused in digital arrest scams. A report outlining the proposal’s practicality and safeguards will be submitted before the next hearing.
The court also sought detailed state-wise and bank-wise data in the next status report, including the number of complaints received and resolved, restoration orders issued and completed, and the amount of money returned to victims.
According to the latest status report submitted before the court, digital arrest complaints have declined significantly from over 1.23 lakh cases in 2024 to 58,249 in 2025 and 16,377 cases till June 2026. The Bench also noted a decline in the amount lost to such frauds, while observing that the CBI is currently investigating multiple organised digital arrest networks involving hundreds of victims and crores of rupees.
The matter is scheduled to be heard next on September 16, 2026.
