New Delhi, Jan 18: The Supreme Court has directed that a plea seeking directions to the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India to formulate a Standard Operating Procedure governing freezing and de-freezing of bank accounts during cybercrime probes be placed before Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.

A bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and SVN Bhatti directed the apex court registry to seek instruction from the CJI and place the matter accordingly before appropriate bench after it was informed by the Centre that the CJI-led bench was already hearing a suo moto matter related to digital arrests, where the same issue is under consideration.

“Anil Kaushik, ASG further submits that as far as prayers ‘B’ and ‘C’ are concerned, they are the subject matter of consideration before another bench of this Court in Suo Moto Writ Petition (Crl.) No…. In view of the above, the registry to obtain appropriate orders from the Chief Justice of India and post the matter accordingly,” the top court said in its order on January 16.

The top court had earlier agreed to examine the plea which have prayer ‘B’ stating that no bank account shall be frozen without a written reasoned order and intimation to the account holder within 24 hours of such action and every freezing order shall be forthwith reported to the jurisdictional magistrate as mandated under Section 106(3) of BNSS/ 102(3) of the CrPC.

Its prayer ‘C’ seeks direction to the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India to formulate a uniform Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) governing freezing and de-freezing of bank accounts during cybercrime investigations, so as to prevent arbitrary action and ensure procedural fairness nationwide.

At the outset, Kaushik informed the bench that Centre has not freezed the bank accounts of petitioners, who alleged the action was taken without intimation.

On January 6, the top court had asked the copy of the petition to be served on the Centre within three days, and listed the matter next week.

The plea also sought the issuance of appropriate guidelines to all investigating agencies, including cyber cells across the country, to ensure that no bank account is frozen without a written, reasoned order and intimation to the account holder within 24 hours of such action.

The plea filed by petitioner Vivek Varshney, through advocate Tushar Manohar Khairnar ,said he was aggrieved by the “arbitrary freezing/holding” of his bank account(s) by the Cyber Cell of Tamil Nadu police allegedly without any prior notice, communication or judicial approval, thereby violating his fundamental rights under Articles 19(1)(g) and 21 of the Constitution.

The petitioner claimed that the freezing order in his case has resulted in complete financial paralysis, restricting him from carrying out his professional and personal obligations, including payment of essential expenses, taxes and liabilities.

“It is respectfully submitted that Section 106(3) of BNSS/ 102(3) of the Cr.P.C. mandates that any seizure or freezing of property must be forthwith reported to the jurisdictional magistrate. However, in the instant case, no such compliance has been made. The action of the respondents is, therefore, without jurisdiction, arbitrary, and unconstitutional,” it said.

The plea highlighted that there is currently no uniform procedure or Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) governing the freezing and unfreezing of bank accounts during cybercrime or financial investigations.

“Consequently, citizens across different states are subjected to inconsistent practices, prolonged freezing periods, and deprivation of their financial rights without due process.

“Hence, this court’s indulgence is sought to (i) direct the immediate defreezing of the petitioner’s account(s); and (ii) frame uniform guidelines to ensure procedural safeguards, proportionality, and accountability in all future actions of this nature,” it said.

Varshney, whose bank account was allegedly frozen due to transaction related to sale of jewellery, submitted that his writ petition was filed to formulate a rule that unless an account holder is proven to be complicit in a crime, their entire bank account or amount more than alleged to be involved in the crime should not be frozen merely because a suspicious transaction has been traced to it.

“Recognising the increasing frequency of such cases”, the plea urged the court to “formulate guidelines to save the common man from suffering from unnecessary harassment”.

It also urged the court to direct “the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India to formulate a uniform policy and standard operating procedures (SOPs) in the cases of similar nature where cyber cell issues notices freezing accounts”

New Delhi, Jan 18: Delhi continued to grapple with a severe air pollution crisis on Sunday morning as air quality in the national capital remained in the ‘severe’ category, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded at 439 at 7 am, according to data released by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The situation worsened overnight, with the AQI recorded at 432 at 10 pm on Saturday, placing it in the ‘severe’ category, before deteriorating further by early Sunday morning. The persistent high pollution levels have raised serious health concerns, particularly for children, the elderly and people suffering from respiratory and cardiovascular ailments.

Several areas across the city reported alarmingly high pollution levels, reflecting the widespread nature of the pollution crisis. Anand Vihar recorded an AQI of 489, Ashok Vihar 463, Bawana 467, Chandni Chowk 464, Dwarka Sector 8 469, ITO 448, Narela 412, Punjabi Bagh 476, RK Puram 467 and Wazirpur 478. All these locations fell under the ‘severe’ category, indicating extremely poor air quality and heightened health risks.

As per AQI classification, a reading between 0 and 50 is ‘good’, 51 to 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 to 200 ‘moderate’, 201 to 300 ‘poor’, 301 to 400 ‘very poor’ and 401 to 500 ‘severe’.

Furthermore, visibility across the city remained poor as cold wave conditions continued and dense fog covered large parts of Delhi. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) reported that dense fog persisted in the morning hours, with moderate fog observed at several locations and dense fog at isolated spots. Minimum temperatures on Sunday hovered between 5 and 7 degrees Celsius, remaining below normal by 1.6 to 3 degrees Celsius.

In response to the deteriorating air quality, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) on Saturday reinvoked Stage-IV measures under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) across Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR).

“Keeping in view the prevailing trend of air quality and relevant factors and in an effort to prevent further deterioration of air quality in the region, the CAQM Sub-Committee on GRAP unanimously decides to invoke all actions as envisaged under Stage-IV of the extant GRAP – ‘Severe+’ Air Quality (DELHI AQI > 450), with immediate effect, in the entire NCR, as a proactive measure. This is in addition to the actions under Stages I, II & III of the extant GRAP already in force in NCR,” the order from the CAQM read.

The order further added, “NCR Pollution Control Boards and other agencies concerned have been asked to escalate the preventive measures to prevent further deterioration of air quality in the region.”

With severe pollution, cold wave and dense fog persisting, authorities have urged citizens to limit outdoor activities, follow health advisories, and take precautions against the hazardous air quality.

New Delhi, Jan 17:: Director Census Operations (DCO) and Director Citizen Registration (DCR), Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs for Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, Amit Sharma, on Saturday, termed the Census 2027 as the founding pillar of Viksit Bharat.

During the 6th Digital Transformation Summit and Awards organised by Governance Now Group in the National Capital, New Delhi, he elaborated about the unique and novel features of the upcoming Digital Paperless Census 2027 and called it the founding pillar of Viksit Bharat.

Sharma was exclusively invited as a keynote speaker and a special guest as an e-Governance expert to share his perspectives about the upcoming Census 2027.

He was requested to talk on the topic of ‘Building Digital-First Governance’.

Sharma shared special features of the upcoming Census 2026-27, like self enumeration facility for the citizens to fill their own data using Geo-tagging feature, 100 percent paperless census to be recorded by enumerators and supervisors on their own devices in unique application developed by C-DAC for it, fast processing of Census data in indigenous Data Centres of ORGI and earliest release of reports thereafter.

He said it would be error-free, transparent, and clean data Census with the extensive usage of technology and e-Governance tools, Census as a Service (CaaS) feature declared by the Government of India for the upcoming Census and many others.

It was highly appreciated by the gathering comprising senior bureaucrats, technology specialists, PSU lead teams like C-DAC, NICSI, IT giants, policy makers, and national digital governance awardees.

Sharma, apart from sharing the novelties of the upcoming Census in the nation, also described it as an important founding pillar of Viksit Bharat Mission of the Centre, which would have a far-reaching impact upon the Indian economy, demography and politics and would also help in redefining the EXIM Policy of the nation.

He also utilised this opportunity to request all the audience members to become active messengers of the first-of-its-kind Digital Census, which was going to take place in India since the inception of Census activity, much earlier than becoming an independent nation in 1947, being the second most populous nation and largest democracy of the world.

Sharma also invited Governance Now Group to take a lead in organising the first national-level Census Awareness-cum-Sensitisation Programme in J&K amongst all states and UTs, wherein top experts on the subject could be invited to shed light over varied aspects of the upcoming Census 2026-27 for the general public awareness, thereby highlighting the importance and criticality of participation in the same.

In the last phase of this national event, top e-Governance related practices all across the country were duly recognised and awarded wherein Sharma’s recent role as ICT Secretary Mizoram was also highly appreciated especially recalling his initiatives in introducing e-Offiice, Bhashini, DigitLocker, Mizo Fibre Grid Network Project and many alike IT initiatives which had never seen light of day in that part of the nation previously.

He also joined the J&K team in receiving an e-Governance related award in the Rural Development sector.

The packed-house gathering and the organising team thanked Sharma for his eloquent address during the summit, enlightening everyone there about the novel features of Census 2027 and they in-turn, assured him towards becoming active stakeholders for fully backing-up upcoming Digital Census led by Ministry of Home Affairs through Office of Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India in the coming months all across country till its culmination in February 2027.