New Delhi, Feb 19 (NationPress) The Delhi High Court has decided to review a public interest litigation (PIL) that advocates for the establishment of comprehensive guidelines aimed at combating the escalating issue of frauds associated with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

In issuing a notice, a bench led by Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia requested feedback from the Union government, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) concerning the appeal made by retired government employee Pankaj Nigam.

This petition, filed under Article 226 of the Constitution through advocate Nishchaya Nigam, calls for authorities to implement effective protective measures against UPI-based frauds, asserting that unchecked digital payment scams threaten not only citizens’ finances but also their fundamental rights under Article 21.

The petition highlights that, without a robust mechanism to prevent, report, and recover from online financial scams, victims find themselves “running from pillar to post.”

It indicates that the public is increasingly being “defrauded by unknown individuals through the UPI platform,” noting that the threat extends beyond their hard-earned money to their life and liberty.

The petitioner disclosed that he lost Rs 1,24,616 on February 15, 2024, while looking for rental accommodation via property aggregation websites.

Even after filing a complaint on the National Cyber Crime Portal and notifying the respective banks, no recovery has occurred, and the alleged fraudster’s identity remains unknown.

The petition also mentioned NPCI’s UPI Dispute Redressal Mechanism, stating that it merely categorizes complaints into predefined sub-categories and fails to provide real-time access to crucial details such as the recipient's bank account information related to the disputed transaction.

Furthermore, it emphasized that “no verification or acknowledgment is given to the complainant, hindering their ability to track the status of their complaint or utilize it as evidence.”

The petition contends that victims currently have to engage multiple authorities, including banks, payment service providers, telecom operators, and cyber police, resulting in delays that hinder timely recovery efforts.

“There is no centralized complaint mechanism for reporting such frauds,” the petition stated, alleging that the fragmented system compels victims to seek assistance from various sources, which deters them from reporting cyber crimes within the critical response timeframe.

The PIL urges that only fully KYC-compliant bank accounts be permitted to engage in UPI transactions, arguing that non-compliant accounts facilitate fraudsters’ anonymity.

It also requests the establishment of a dedicated integrated platform linking the National Cyber Crime Helpline Portal with UPI applications, banks, payment service providers, and telecom operators to streamline reporting and accelerate recovery efforts.

The plea further calls for authorities to maintain transaction-related information, including account details, metadata, IP logs, and proof of sender and recipient, to expedite investigations and prosecutions.

Additionally, the petitioner has requested the Delhi High Court to include UPI frauds involving amounts below Rs 10 lakh within the e-Zero FIR initiative for the automatic registration of cases and to develop a specialized Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for investigating multi-jurisdictional cyber frauds.

Based on official statistics, the petition noted that digital fraud in India surged fivefold to Rs 14.57 billion in the financial year ending March 2024, while domestic UPI payment fraud escalated from Rs 111 crore in FY 2020-21 to Rs 573 crore in FY 2022-23.

The plea asserted that fraudsters have employed various tactics, including “Digital Arrest, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), spamming multiple collect requests, fake UPI-QR Codes, and schemes promising high returns,” to deceive unsuspecting users.