Karnataka High Court urges national framework on interstate bank account freezes

4 min readBengaluruUpdated: Jun 6, 2026 10:04 AM IST

The Karnataka HC passed the order in a petition by a Bengaluru resident who sought to quash the debit freeze notice issued to the Axis Bank in Bengaluru by the Maharashtra Police..

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed the Central Government to consider framing a national-level policy or framework, to ease the adjudication process involving cases where bank accounts of individuals are frozen in one state on the notice issued by the police from another state while probing alleged cyber fraud cases.

Justice Suraj Govindaraj, in his order dated June 4, has also sought the assistance of Additional Solicitor General Aravind Kamath to get instructions from the departments concerned on how these matters can be processed, citing the growing number of similar cases.

The court passed the order in a petition by a Bengaluru resident, Santhosh Kumar H V, who sought to quash the debit freeze notice issued to the Axis Bank in Bengaluru by the Maharashtra Police.

During the hearing, the bench noted that the present matter is another matter where the debit freeze order has been issued by a police officer outside Karnataka.

The court said, “The petitioner carries on business in Bengaluru and stays in Bengaluru, and his account is also in the Bengaluru branch of Axis Bank. While the debit freeze account is passed by the Maharashtra Police, before deciding on the petition, it would be required for the said police officer (Maharashtra Police) to be heard before granting any relief. However, in many matters when notice is issued, notice though served, there is no representation.”

The bench observed that the government advocate, who was directed to secure instruction, has categorically stated that he would not be able to appear for any other state, other than the Government of Karnataka.

It called upon ASG Kamath to take instructions from different departments and help resolve the logjam that is happening in such cases.

Story continues below this ad

Justice Govindaraj suggested the following issues that could be considered by the Central Government:

1) If a debit freeze order is passed by a police authority situated outside the jurisdiction of the court, how is that police authority to be served notice?

2) Though the police would inform the bank about debit freezing, would the police also be required to inform the account holder whose bank account is to be frozen?

3) Would the bank be required to immediately inform the account holder about the order received by the bank from the police directing it to debit freeze his/her bank account.

Story continues below this ad

4) In which jurisdiction would the account holder have to file proceedings, whether it would be in the jurisdiction where the bank account is held or in the jurisdiction from where the police order was passed? In either case, there would be a difficulty in respondents representing the matter. In as much as banks may not have proper assistance where the police are situated or police may not have proper assistance where the bank is situated. The same applies to the petitioners’ residence (account holders).

5) It also needs to be explored whether service of notice on the police officer situated outside the jurisdiction of the court could be made through any other established mechanism like the  Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS), National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), or the like.

6) One other issue that could also be considered is whether a debit freeze account could be made in its entirety or can be made only in respect of the alleged illegal amount the complainant is said to have received.

The court has now posted the matter for further hearing on July 1.