JUDGMENT

Dated this the 11^th day of March, 2026

1. The Petitioner has filed this Writ Petition seeking a direction to unfreeze his account mentioned in the Writ Petition maintained with the Respondent/Bank.

2. The learned Standing Counsel for the Respondent/Bank, after getting instructions, submitted that the account of the Petitioner is classified as a mule account on the basis of the suspicion on the part of the Bank with respect to the operation of the account.

3. 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