Supreme Court Directs WhatsApp And Other Intermediaries To Inform Measures To Prevent Digital Arrest Scam & Cybercrimes

A bench comprising the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice V Mohana issued the direction while hearing the suo motu case (In Re: Victims of Digital Arrest Related to Forged Documents), and matters connected with it.

“WhatsApp LLC (A Meta Company) and other concerned intermediaries are also directed to apprise this Court of the measures they propose to undertake to prevent the digital arrest scams and related cybercrimes. They shall also simultaneously submit their proposals to the I4C,” the bench directed. For context, I4C stands for Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre.

The bench has been monitoring the issue since months. A status report filed by the Union government recorded the steps taken after the Supreme Court's directions passed in February this year. WhatsApp reportedly banned 9,400 accounts linked to digital arrest scams and impersonation of law enforcement agencies, following an investigation.

In August this year, the bench issued a series of directions, including those passes for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) wherein it was asked to adopt a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for banks on placing temporary debit holds on accounts linked to cyber-enabled financial fraud, along with a grievance redressal mechanism and a money restoration module. The States and Union Territories were told to operationalise State Cyber Crime Coordination Centres. The Inter-Departmental Committee was also asked to examine a shared liability and victim compensation framework.

The bench also directed that the regulatory measures proposed by the Reserve Bank of India must require banks to compensate victims of cyberscams if it is established that the fraud happened due to lack of due diligence by the banks.

“The regulatory measures proposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) must mandate and incorporate suitable provisions that require financial institutions to indemnify victims of digital arrest scams and other cyber frauds and pay suitable compensation not less than the amount lost by the customer, where it is established that the fraud or crime occurred due to the failure on the part of the financial institution to exercise due diligence in preventing or reporting the act/incident,” the bench reiterated in late October.

The bench also noted that it had emphasised in the past various preventive safeguards that must be mandated for every financial institution. “These may include temporarily suspending unusual or suspicious transactions inconsistent with the account's past transaction history, automatically intimating such transactions to the nearest police station, and subsequently physically verifying the reported transactions to ascertain their genuineness,” the bench observed.

To ensure effective implementation of the RBI's proposed regulatory measures and the Court's own directions, the Court directed the RBI to submit a list of all the authorized financial institutions before this court on the next date of hearing (November 23).

Further, the Court directed all Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) in States and Union Territories to submit the status of the FIRs registered so far in connection with digital arrest scam cases and the resultant investigation, while also seeking suggestions for appropriate measures for the prevention, detection and prosecution of such cases. The Directors General of Police (DGP) of all States and Union Territories are also directed to ensure compliance.

WhatsApp and other intermediaries are accordingly directed to apprise the Supreme Court of their proposed preventive measures and to submit their proposals to the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre.

The matter will next be heard on November 23, 2026.

Appearances:

Ms. N.S. Nappinai, Sr. Adv. (Amicus Curiae); Ms. Sthavi Asthana, AOR; Mr. K.V.D. Kishore Kumar, Adv.; Mr. Shubham Chandra, Adv.

For Petitioners: Ms. Nupur Sharma, Adv.; Mr. Manan Popli, Adv.; Mr. Abhinav Agrawal, AOR; Ms. Apurva Gaur, Adv.; Ms. Priya Tripathi, Adv.; Mr. Piyush Bhardwaj, Adv.; Mr. Shivam Sengupta, Adv.; Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR; Dr. Mahendra Limaye, Adv.; Mr. Alok Sharma, Adv.; Dr. Tushar Mandlekar, Adv.; Mr. Raghvendra Kumar, AOR

For Respondents: Mr. R. Venkataramani, Attorney General for India; Mr. Anandh Venkataramani, Adv.; Ms. Ameyavikrama Thanvi, Adv.; Ms. Anjali Agrawal, Adv.; Mr. Kartikay Aggarwal, Adv.; Ms. Gayathri Venugopal, Adv.; Mr. Dr. Mahendra Limaye, Adv.; Mr. Alok Sharma, Adv.; Mr. Rathod Rajesh Ranjit, AOR; Mr. Naresh Kr. Srivastava, Adv.; Mr. Abhay Warik, Adv.; Mr. Ramesh Babu M.R., Sr. Adv.; Ms. Manisha Singh, Adv; Ms. Nisha Sharma, Adv.; Ms. Tanya Chowdhary, Adv.; Ms. Mukti Chowdhary, AOR; Mr. Rajesh Kumar Chaurasia, AOR; Mr. Gaurav Gupta, Adv.; Mr. Surya Pratap, Adv.; Mr. Hem Kumar, Adv.; Mr. Sujeet Kumar, Adv.; Mr. Shailendra Kumar Nirmal, Adv.; Mr. Dharav Shah, Adv.; Mr. Pranaya Goyal, AOR; Mr. R. Sudhinder, Adv.; Ms. Ekta Bhasin, Adv.; Ms. Aastha Trivedi, Adv.; Mr. Anand Amit, Adv.; Ms. Anushka Sharma, Adv.; Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan, AOR; Mr. Sumit Goel, Adv.; Ms. Sreeparna Basak, Adv.; Mr. Aditya Sharma, Adv.; Mr. Abhishek Thakral, Adv.; Ms. Sharen Joel, Adv.; Mr. Kshitij Padhi, Adv.; Mr. Aditya Francis, Adv.; M/S. Parekh & Co., AOR; Mr. D. Bharat Kumar, Adv.; Mr. Aman Shukla, Adv.; Mr. M. Chandrakanth Reddy, Adv.; Mr. Thandra Sai Yeshwanth Goud, Adv.; Mr. Kadali Vali Baba, Adv.; Mr. Gopal Jha, AOR; Mr. Nand Kishore Sharma, Adv.; Mr. Shyam Gopal, AOR; Mr. P. 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