The Bombay High Court has stepped in to shield Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal from a “fraud” label placed on his account by the Bank of India, ruling that the move was carried out without giving him a fair chance to defend himself.
A Bench of Justices RI Chagla and Farhan P Dubash, in their September 25 order, held that the bank violated the fundamental rule of natural justice — no person can be condemned without being heard. Simply revisiting an old decision and attaching a forensic audit report after the fact, the Court said, was not enough.
“The petitioner was denied an opportunity to present his case before his account was branded as fraudulent,” the judges observed, striking down the bank’s July 1 notice that had relied on a previous classification.
The backstory traces to December 2024, when the bank first issued a notice without sharing the forensic audit report with Goyal. By July 2025, it tried again, this time appending the report but still leaning on the earlier decision — a move the Court found procedurally hollow.
Goyal argued that he had never even received a formal order declaring his account fraudulent and called the bank’s actions arbitrary. The Court agreed, recording the bank’s assurance that it would not pursue the earlier notices.
For now, Bank of India cannot act on the fraud tag. But the Court gave it liberty to start afresh — with one key condition: any new attempt must come from a different committee and follow the principles of natural justice to the letter.
The order underscores a simple but powerful reminder: even banks must play by the rulebook when reputations and livelihoods are on the line.