GUWAHATI, India, April 15 -- Gauhati High Court issued the following order on March 13:

1. Heard Mr. M. Ali, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Petitioners and H. Buragohain, the learned Standing counsel appearing on behalf of the State Bank of India. I have also heard Mr. K. Gogoi, the learned CGC appearing on behalf of the Union of India.

2. The Petitioners herein are the businessmen by profession and the proprietors of a partnership business under the name and style of "Manash Enterprise" situated at Majgaon Bazar, Barpeta having its PAN No.ACEFM5119L. For the said purpose, the Petitioners are maintaining a SBI Current Account bearing No. 44633983652 with the Respondent State Bank of India.

3. The grievance of the Petitioners in the instant writ petition is that the Bank authorities have kept the Bank Account of the Petitioners on hold/blocked. It is the case of the Petitioners that, upon enquiry with the Bank, they came to know that their account had been blocked by the Head Office of the State Bank of India due to a disputed transaction of Rs. 2,000/-. It is the further case of the Petitioners that the Bank Account has been blocked without issuing any notice or intimation either by the Bank Authorities or by any Investigating Agency.

4. The Petitioners made various verbal requests for unfreezing their account but the Respondent Bank did not take any action till date. Under such circumstances, the Petitioners have approached this Court by filing the instant writ petition.

5. Mr. M. Ali, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Petitioners has submitted that the Petitioners are running a legal business and there is no fraudulent transaction of any kind related to the aforesaid Bank Account. The learned counsel for the Petitioners further submitted that the action has been taken without giving any prior notice to the Petitioners, which has caused immense prejudice to the Petitioners. The learned counsel also submitted that the transaction of Rs. 2,000/-, which appears to have been treated as part of a fraudulent transaction involving the aforesaid savings account of the Petitioners, is not attributable to the Petitioners.

6. In this regard, the learned counsel for the Petitioners has submitted that in similarly situated matters, there has been direction for keeping in lien the disputed amounts and allowing the incumbents to run their respective bank accounts.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/ecourtindiaHC/cases/display_pdf.php?filename=I1mmm2bl4r4EREhYK63Kv%2B%2FrVPjTe3ebAnGHKnHDy%2FRNMGYqEFV%2BtqgYdrX92YW0&caseno=WP(C)/664/2026&cCode=1&cino=GAHC010011342026&state_code=6&appFlag=)

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