The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside a Gauhati
High Court order for round-the-clock manning of ATMs to ensure one customer
entry at a time.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K Vinod Chandran
took note of the submissions of solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for
some banks, that it was not practical to deploy security guards round the clock
at all ATMs.
"In Assam, we have around 4,000 ATMs. We cannot
have one security guard at all the ATMs. The worldwide recognised system is to
have CCTVs," he said.
Mehta said the apex court in December 2016 stayed
the high court's direction, which could be made absolute.
He said the petitioner banks, including the State
Bank of India, had no grievance in accepting the other directions issued by the
high court in December 2013 concerning security protocols for proper
functioning of ATMs.
The bench allowed the petition and set aside the
direction issued by the high court which read, "Place security guards
round the clock at all ATMs so that proper queues are enforced and to ensure
that only one customer can enter for one ATM, at a time." The high court took a suo motu cognisance on a news item
published in December 2012 over an alleged ATM fraud in which a person was
duped of Rs 35,000.
It issued notices to Reserve Bank of India, the bank
concerned, aside from the Centre and the director general of police, Assam, to
decide on the safeguards that could be provided to ATM customers to avoid such
incidents.
The high court order took note of the DGP's
affidavit filed in May 2013 suggesting an action plan to provide security to
ATMs of all the banks in the state.
The high court accepted the suggested plan and
directed the state authorities to ensure its implementation.