India’s Supreme Court has taken a pivotal step towards addressing the issue of vast unclaimed financial assets by issuing notices to the Union Government and several financial regulators. On Monday, October 6, 2025, the Court sought responses regarding a public interest petition that proposes an integrated digital platform. This platform aims to provide citizens with comprehensive access to all their financial holdings – whether currently operational, inactive, or completely unclaimed – across entities regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).
A Bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta has directed the Union of India, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, the National Savings Institute, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) to submit their responses within four weeks. The case is scheduled for further hearing after this period.
The petition, initiated by social activist Aakash Goel, advocates for a centralized system. Its primary goal is to empower individuals to efficiently trace and reclaim their financial assets that are currently dispersed or lying dormant across various financial institutions. These include inactive bank accounts, unclaimed dividends, matured insurance policies, unpaid provident fund balances, and unredeemed mutual fund units, all of which currently lack a unified mechanism for tracking and recovery.
A Call for Action on ‘Trapped Wealth’
Senior advocate Mukta Gupta, representing the petitioner, highlighted that despite the Delhi High Court previously acknowledging the seriousness of this issue, authorities have failed to act on the petitioner’s recommendations. “The High Court had recognized the gravity of the problem but deferred to the authorities for policy consideration. Since then, no progress has been made, and the funds of millions of ordinary citizens remain inaccessible across banks and insurance companies,” Ms. Gupta stated.
The Delhi High Court, in January, had indeed described the problem of dormant and unclaimed financial assets as “a serious concern affecting millions of depositors and investors.” However, it had refrained from judicial intervention, concluding that the matter required attention at the executive and policy-making levels.
The petition graphically illustrates the scale of this “trapped wealth,” revealing that over 9.22 crore bank accounts nationwide are currently inoperative, each holding an average balance of ₹3,918. Furthermore, it estimates that more than ₹3.5 lakh crore in unclaimed financial assets are stagnant across banks, mutual funds, insurance companies, provident funds, and small savings schemes.
“The accumulation of these unclaimed financial assets is primarily due to the absence of a unified, centralized portal accessible across all regulated entities,” the plea explains. It highlights the difficulty individuals face in accessing details pertaining to their bank deposits, shares, dividends, insurance, and pension funds without a single point of reference.
A significant portion of these funds belongs to individuals who have passed away, with their legal heirs often unaware of the existence of these assets due to missing nominee details or the sheer fragmentation of the current system. This situation, the petition argues, results in a massive pool of wealth that is both inaccessible to its rightful beneficiaries and contributes minimally to the nation’s economy.
The plea strongly asserts that the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution – the right to property under Article 300A, and the right to information under Article 19(1)(a), alongside the right to dignity and welfare under Article 21 – compel the state to actively facilitate the recovery and return of these unclaimed assets to their legitimate owners.
Therefore, the petitioner requests the development of a secure, Aadhaar-linked, e-KYC-enabled platform. This platform would consolidate details of all financial assets held by individuals and their nominees under various regulatory bodies. Additionally, the petition seeks directives to make nominee information mandatory for every account or investment and to establish a clear, time-bound mechanism for addressing claims and grievances effectively.