Gauhati High Court Orders Bandhan Bank to Unfreeze Account, Impose Lien Only on Suspicious Amount

The Gauhati High Court has directed Bandhan Bank to defreeze a businessman's bank account that was blanket-frozen on grounds of a suspicious transaction of ₹1700. Justice Manish Choudhury held that restricting an account holder from all transactions violates the constitutional right to livelihood and conduct business.

The petitioner, who runs a footwear shop, had approached the court after his current account was blocked since December 2020 following a suspicious credit of ₹1700 on 18 August 2020. The account contained over ₹20,000 at the time. The court found the blanket freeze arbitrary and directed the bank to place a lien only on the suspicious amount while permitting the account holder to operate the account with the remaining balance.

The bank had frozen the account on receipt of a cyber complaint from the Cyber Crime Incident Response Unit, Ahmedabad. The court's order upholds the account holder's right to earn livelihood despite the ongoing investigation.