Supreme Court Upholds RBI's Decision To Supersede Abhyudaya Co-operative Bank Board, Appoint Administrator

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to interfere with the Bombay High Court's November 18, 2024 judgment upholding the Reserve Bank of India's decision to supersede the Board of Directors of Abhyudaya Co-operative Bank Ltd. and appoint an Administrator for the bank.The Bombay High Court had rejected the challenge to RBI's November 24, 2023 order superseding the bank's Board for one year under Section 36AAA read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. The High Court held that the...

RBI Appoints Suman Ray As Executive Director With Effect From 1 September

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed Suman Ray as Executive Director with effect from 1 September 2026. Ray was serving as the Regional Director for Maharashtra before his elevation. He has over 30 years of experience with the RBI and has worked across several areas, including currency management, financial inclusion, payment and settlement systems, consumer education and protection, and human resources. He has also served as Secretary to the Western Area Local Board of the RBI. As...

LOC Cannot Be Issued Against Director Merely For Company's Loan Default: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on 10 August held that a Look Out Circular (LOC) cannot be issued merely because a person was a non-executive director of a company that failed to repay bank dues, particularly when the bank has already initiated legal proceedings to recover the amount. Justice Jasmeet Singh cancelled the LOC issued against Tushar Dey, a former independent and non-executive director of Birla Aircon Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (BAIPL), and directed the Bureau of Immigration to communicate the...

Company's 'Fraud' Classification Doesn't Automatically Attract Penal Consequences For Directors: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court has held that directors would not face penal consequences under the Reserve Bank of India's 2024 Fraud Master Circular merely because their company has been declared "fraud." The directors themselves must be declared “fraud” after following the procedure prescribed under the Circular. “Merely by declaring the 5th Respondent Company as “fraud” and the Petitioners not being declared as “fraudsters” by the 1st Respondent Bank would not visit upon them the penal consequences...

Borrower Cannot 'Blithely' Ignore Banks' Accounting System While Calculating Loan Liability: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has observed that a borrower, in this case a trust and its trustees, cannot keep changing its calculations of loan liability to suit its interests while ignoring the accounting system followed by banks.A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Sanjeev Sachdeva observed, “The Trust and its trustees cannot blithely ignore the accounting system followed by banks and come up with different calculations at different points of time to suit their own interests.”The top court restored the...

NBFC's Pending Amalgamation Application Not Enough To Claim It Meets NOF Requirement: Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court has recently held that a pending amalgamation proposal does not give a Non-Banking Financial Institution (NBFI) a legal right to claim that it meets the prescribed Net Owned Fund (NOF) requirement when the amalgamation has not actually gone through.Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya observed that even if the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had approved Nadia Printing & Packaging Pvt Ltd's proposed amalgamation with five other companies, further steps would still have been...

Bombay High Court Upholds Fraud Tag On Former Realme Zonal Distributor, Rejects Ex-Director's Plea

The Bombay High Court on Thursday dismissed a writ petition filed by Anil Khemani, former director of Eagle Electronics India Pvt Ltd (EEPL), a Realme zonal distributor. Khemani had challenged Axis Bank's show cause notice and its decision declaring the company's account as "fraud". A division bench of Justices B.P. Colabawalla and Firdosh P. Pooniwalla upheld the bank's October 16, 2025 order. The Court found no violation of the principles of natural justice and held that the fraud...

Lok Sabha Passes Bill Giving Centre Power To Decide Which Digital Payments Are Free Of Merchant Charges

The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026. The Bill amends the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, to give the central government the power to decide which digital payment modes, including those currently exempt from merchant charges such as UPI and RuPay debit cards, will continue to enjoy that protection. At present, Section 10A of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act prohibits banks and payment system providers from levying charges on digital...

Word 'Demand' Not Mandatory In Cheque Dishonour Notice, 'Advice' Can Suffice: Gauhati High Court

The Gauhati High Court has held that a statutory notice under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (which deals with cheque dishonour) need not expressly use the word “demand” if the notice, read as a whole, clearly communicates the requirement to pay the dishonoured cheque amount. Justice Sanjeev Kumar Sharma dismissed the criminal revision petition filed by Protima Dutta Kalita and upheld her conviction, holding that a notice using the word “advice” instead of “demand” can...

Banks Must Share Forensic Audit Reports Before Declaring Accounts Fraudulent: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court on 31 July held that banks cannot classify a borrower's account as fraudulent without supplying the investigation and forensic audit reports relied upon for such classification, ruling that withholding these documents violates the borrower's right to a fair opportunity of hearing. The Division Bench of Justices B. P. Colabawalla and Somasekhar Sundaresan quashed Canara Bank's order dated 25 February 2026 declaring businessman Jayesh V Valia's account as “fraudulent”...

Bankers' Books Evidence Bill Introduced In Parliament To Recognise Digital Bank Records As Evidence

The Centre has proposed replacing the colonial-era Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 1891 with the Bankers' Books Evidence Bill, 2026, which expressly recognises electronic and digital bank records, including those stored on cloud infrastructure, as admissible evidence in legal proceedings. The bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, expands the definition of "bankers' books" to include records maintained in physical form as well as those stored...

RBI Appoints Monisha Chakraborty As Executive Director To Oversee Forex And Markets Regulation

The Reserve Bank of India on Monday appointed Monisha Chakraborty as Executive Director with effect from 3 August 2026. Before her appointment, Chakraborty was serving as Chief General Manager-in-Charge in the Reserve Bank of India's Department of Supervision. She has over three decades of experience at the central bank, having worked in the areas of Supervision, Foreign Exchange, and Government and Bank Accounts. Chakraborty has also served as Banking Ombudsman and was part of a technical...