Supreme Court agrees to hear plea seeking centralised portal to access list of all financial assets

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and others on a plea seeking directions to establish a centralised portal for accessing a comprehensive list of all financial assets, whether active, inactive, dormant or inoperative, held across entities.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta agreed to hear the plea and issued notices to the RBI, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Centre and others, seeking their responses to the petition, and posted the matter for hearing after four weeks.

The petitioner's counsel told the court that the matter relates to small investors or depositors.

"As on today, it is Rs 3.5 lakh crore of money," the counsel said, adding that the amount was not given back to the rightful investors.

The counsel told the bench that they had first approached a high court on the issue.

"The high court said it is a very important issue but it is for the authorities to see and no judicial interference is warranted," the lawyer added.

The bench was hearing a plea filed by one Aakash Goel.

The plea has sought directions to the authorities concerned to issue guidelines to its regulated entities to mandate rules to capture minimum details about the nominee for each financial asset.

It has also sought directions to establish or facilitate a seamless system, in coordination with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Department of Food and Public Distribution, to enable the regulated entities to know about the death of the account or asset holder and communicate appropriately after identifying the family members in cases where financial assets lack a designated nominee.

The plea has sought directions to the authorities concerned "to establish a centralised portal, enabling individuals, after completing e-KYC requirements, to access a comprehensive list of all financial assets, whether active, inactive, dormant or inoperative, held across entities regulated by the respective regulator/entity".