Supreme Court of India Orders Action Against Digital Arrest Scams

The Supreme Court of India issued nationwide directives on August 4, 2026, to strengthen the framework for preventing and investigating digital arrest scams. A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant ordered the Reserve Bank of India to develop and circulate a standard operating procedure for managing mule accounts and implementing temporary debit holds on fraud-linked accounts within four weeks.

Under the court's order, all Indian states and Union Territories must operationalize grievance redressal and money restoration modules, establish State Cyber Crime Coordination Centres, and adopt e-Zero FIR mechanisms within four weeks. The bench also tasked an Inter-Departmental Committee with examining a victim compensation framework and consulting banks on technological measures to recover funds.

To prevent further fraud, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Department of Telecommunications must examine the feasibility of time-based restrictions on audio and video calls. These measures follow a status report from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre showing a decline in reported digital arrest scams from 123,672 in 2024 to 16,377 by June 30, 2026. Additionally, the Central Bureau of Investigation is considering lowering its monetary threshold for taking over cyber fraud investigations after registering ten digital arrest cases.