New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and other authorities on a plea requesting the creation of a centralised portal to access a complete list of financial assets—active, inactive, dormant, or inoperative—held across various entities.
A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta agreed to hear the plea, issuing notices to the RBI, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Centre, and other concerned authorities, and scheduled the matter for hearing in four weeks.
The petitioner’s counsel told the court that the issue primarily concerns small investors and depositors. “As of now, the amount involved is ₹3.5 lakh crore,” the lawyer said, adding that the money has not been returned to its rightful owners. The counsel also mentioned that the matter was earlier raised before a high court, which acknowledged its importance but deemed it primarily for the authorities to address, without judicial intervention.
The plea, filed by Aakash Goel, seeks directions for regulators to mandate that their entities record at least basic nominee details for each financial asset. It also proposes establishing a coordinated system—with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Department of Food and Public Distribution—to notify family members in cases where account holders pass away and no nominee is designated.
Additionally, the petition requests the authorities to set up a centralised portal that would allow individuals, upon completing e-KYC verification, to access a consolidated list of all their financial assets across regulators and entities, regardless of whether the assets are active, dormant, inactive, or inoperative.
