The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court has issued notice to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on a PIL seeking a mechanism that would allow bank account holders to accept or decline an incoming electronic payment before the amount is credited to their account.
A Division Bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Manjive Shukla passed the order on August 24, 2026, in a PIL filed by advocate Anupriya Agarwal. The court, after hearing the petitioner and the Union of India, issued notice to opposite party nos. 2 and 3 and directed that the matter be listed after eight weeks.
The petition raises concerns over the existing digital payment framework, under which a payer can initiate and authenticate a transaction, while the recipient ordinarily does not have a transaction-specific option to decide whether a particular incoming payment should be received.
According to the plea, a recipient-side control is necessary because money sent electronically is presently credited directly to the recipient’s account without requiring the recipient’s prior acceptance.
Plea Seeks Mandatory Accept/Decline Mechanism
The petitioner has sought directions to the RBI to frame appropriate guidelines providing a mandatory “Accept/Decline” option for incoming electronic payments before the amount is credited to the recipient’s bank account.
Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Saksham Agarwal argued that the existing digital payment architecture largely provides control to the payer for initiating and authenticating a transaction but does not provide a corresponding transaction-level choice to the recipient.
It was contended that the absence of such a mechanism requires consideration from the perspective of customer protection, financial autonomy, privacy and prevention of misuse of electronic payment systems.
The plea seeks to address situations where an account holder may not wish to receive a particular payment but has no mechanism to prevent the amount from being credited to the account.
High Court Issues Notice
The High Court heard Saksham Agarwal for the petitioner and Senior Counsel and Deputy Solicitor General of India S.B. Pandey, assisted by Ambrish Rai, for the Union of India. The order also records Rakesh Kumar Agarwal and Saksham Agarwal as counsel for the petitioner and A.S.G.I. as counsel for the respondents.
The Union of India through the Secretary, Ministry of Finance, along with the RBI and NPCI, has been arrayed as respondents in the PIL. The court has, at this stage, issued notice to the RBI and NPCI without expressing any finding on the merits of the petition.
The matter will now be taken up after eight weeks.
Case Details
Case: Anupriya Agarwal v. Union of India & Others
Case No.: Public Interest Litigation (PIL) No. 805 of 2026
Bench: Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Manjive Shukla
Counsel for Petitioner: Rakesh Kumar Agarwal, Saksham Agarwal
For Union of India: Senior Counsel and Deputy Solicitor General of India S.B. Pandey, assisted by Ambrish Rai
Date of Order: August 24, 2026
