Hon’ble High Court holds that absence of Aadhar cannot be a ground to deny opening of Bank Account, awards ₹50,000 compensation to aggrieved

Name of the Case: Microfibers Pvt. Ltd. v. Yes Bank Ltd. & Ors. 

Citation: 2025:BHC-OS:9585-DB

Hon’ble Bombay High Court’s Bench: Hon’ble Justice M.S. Sonak and Justice Jitendra Jain

Date: 26.06.2025

In a decision reinforcing the binding authority of the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s privacy jurisprudence, the Hon’ble Bombay High Court awarded INR 50,000 as compensation to Microfibers Pvt. Ltd. for being denied the opening of a bank account by Yes Bank on the sole ground of not furnishing an Aadhaar card, despite the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s judgment in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, which affirmed that for purposes akin to opening a bank account, it was discretionary to provide Aadhar details, and not mandatory.

The petitioner’s application to open a bank account in January 2018 was refused by the bank unless it produced an Aadhaar card. Even after the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s final ruling in September 2018, which struck down the mandatory Aadhaar requirement for bank accounts, the respondent failed to act until January 2019, causing loss of rental income from commercial property in Mumbai. The petitioner was hence awarded ₹50,000 as just and equitable compensation. The Hon’ble Court underscored that this was a fit case where the petitioner should not be relegated to the remedies of a civil suit, given the limited means of the petitioner¹.

1. https://bombayhighcourt.nic.in/generatenewauth.php?bhcpar=cGF0aD0uL3dyaXRlcmVhZGRhdGEvZGF0YS9qdWRnZW1lbnRzLzIwMjUvJmZuYW1lPTI1NjAwMDAxNzA2MjAxOF8yNC5wZGYmc21mbGFnPU4mcmp1ZGRhdGU9MDEvMDcvMjAyNSZ1cGxvYWRkdD0yNy8wNi8yMDI1JnNwYXNzcGhyYXNlPTEyMDcyNTE2MDUwMyZuY2l0YXRpb249MjAyNTpCSEMtT1M6OTU4NS1EQiZzbWNpdGF0aW9uPTIwMjU6QkhDLUFTOjI2MjYxLURCJmRpZ2NlcnRmbGc9WSZpbnRlcmZhY2U9Tw== ↩︎