JUDGMENT

Dated this the 9th day of April, 2021 [ WP(C) Nos.22768, 25652 & 27692 of 2020 ]

The petitioners in these three writ petitions are Non Banking Financial Companies registered under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 . The petitioners have large number of Branches spread all over India, serving large number of citizens and employing thousands of employees. To meet their financial needs for business operations, the petitioners have availed a number of credit facilities from the State Bank of India (SBI) and other Banks. They are maintaining more than thousand Current Accounts with various Banks including SBI, which are extremely necessary in view of their nature of business.

2. The Reserve Bank of India, as per Ref.RBI/2020-

21/20 DOR.No.BN.BC/7/21.04.048/2020-21 dated 06.08.2020 directed that no Bank shall open current accounts for customers who have availed credit facilities in the form of cash credit/over draft from the Banking system and all transactions shall be routed through CC/OD account. As per Ext.P1, the petitioners can transact only through the Banks whose exposure to petitioners is beyond 10% (designated Banks). The other Banks who make payments to the petitioners