JUDGMENT

1. The learned Standing Counsel for the Respondent/Bank, after getting instructions, submitted that the account of the Petitioner mentioned in the Writ Petition is kept as a mule account on account of the suspicion on the part of the Bank with respect to the operation of the account.

2. This Court in Abdul Azeez v. Union of India [2025 KLT OnLine 3447]

considered the question of whether the Bank has the right or authority to freeze the accounts of its account holders on the basis of suspicion with respect to the transactions in the account by itself in the absence of any requisition to do so from a law enforcement agency. This Court held that till the time the RBI comes forward with a Standard Operating Procedure for the Banks to deal with suspicious accounts, the following guidelines are to be followed when the Bank entertains suspicion about the operation of the account:

If the Bank is having reas