MUMBAI, April 11 -- Holding that a customer cannot be penalised for cyber fraud without negligence, the Bombay high court has ordered HDFC Bank to return Rs.38.04 lakh to a Pune resident duped in a SIM swap scam. The court noted that banks are liable in unauthorized transactions if the customer has not contributed to the fraud, relying on RBI guidelines that fix zero liability in such cases. A division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande passed the order on a petition filed by Subodh Korde, a business consultant, who maintained savings and current accounts with the bank's Wakad branch. Korde told the court that on July 15, 2021, he received an alert about a Rs.2.14 lakh transfer he had not authorised. On checking his net banking account, he discovered that Rs.38.04 lakh had been siphoned off through eight transactions within a span of about 40 minutes. He found that three beneficiaries had been added to his account and the daily transaction limit increased from Rs.4 lakh to Rs.40 lakh. The funds were subsequently withdrawn through unauthorised transactions. On July 28, the bank responded to his complaint and denied responsibility, claiming OTPs were sent to his registered mobile number. However, Korde argued he never received any such alerts. Korde approached the high court after receiving no relief from the bank. He maintained that he had not received any OTPs or alerts for the transactions. The bank contended that OTPs were generated for all transactions and sent to the petitioner's registered mobile number; therefore, it could not be held liable. Referring to a 2017 Reserve Bank of India circular, the court then held that in cases of unauthorised transactions, customer liability is zero if there is no negligence and the fraud is promptly reported within three working days. An affidavit from BSNL, Korde's mobile service provider, also confirmed the fraud involved SIM swapping, where criminals obtain a duplicate SIM, disabling the original and gaining control over banking access. Against this backdrop, the bench ruled that all transactions, were unauthorised and directed the bank to refund the amount within eight weeks with 6% annual interest from the date of the fraud and that failure to comply will attract 8% interest....