HC seeks RBI, Govt reply on UPI fraud safeguards

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has sought response from the Ministry of Finance, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the National Payments Corp. of India (NPCI) on a public interest plea that sought comprehensive guidelines to prevent digital payment frauds.

The plea had sought court directives to the country's financial management ecosystem to ensure a prompt recovery mechanism for victims amid what it claimed were burgeoning cases of fraud occurring through the unified payments interface (UPI) platforms.

The division bench, led by Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya, issued the notice to the government and others on one Pankaj Nigam's petition, highlighting the "staggering surge" in digital payment frauds. Seeking to make it mandatory for all banks or FIs to allow only KYC-Complete bank accounts to participate in UPI Payments Interface, Nigam told the court that the public was being defrauded by unknown persons through the UPI platform, and the threat was not just to their hard-earned money but also their life and liberty.


This was in clear violation of the fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution, he said, while seeking a seamless integration linking National Cyber Crime Helpline Portal with UPI apps, banks, payment service providers, and telecom operators for "simplified and time-sensitive"