SC overturns HC order on 24/7 ATM security

New Delhi

The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down a Gauhati High Court directive requiring round-the-clock security at ATMs to allow only one customer inside at a time.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K Vinod Chandran accepted Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s argument that deploying security guards at all ATMs was impractical. Mehta, representing several banks, stated that Assam alone has around 4,000 ATMs, making full-time security unfeasible. Instead, globally accepted measures like CCTV surveillance are sufficient.

The Supreme Court had already stayed the high court’s order in December 2016. Mehta noted that banks, including the State Bank of India, had no objections to other security measures prescribed by the high court in December 2013.

The case originated in 2012 when the high court took suo motu cognizance of an ATM fraud incident where a person was defrauded of ₹35,000. Following this, it issued directives to the Reserve Bank of India, the Assam DGP, and other authorities to improve ATM security.

While setting aside the order mandating round-the-clock guards, the Supreme Court upheld the broader security protocols suggested in the high court’s 2013 order. The decision reinforces the use of technology, like CCTV, over constant manual surveillance.