Overview

• Social activist Aakash Goel filed the petition seeking a secure, Aadhaar-linked, e-KYC portal to let citizens view and reclaim active, dormant and unclaimed assets across regulated entities.
• The Supreme Court bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued notices to the Union government, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, the National Savings Institute, EPFO and PFRDA.
• The plea argues the lack of a unified registry violates rights under Articles 14 and 21 and requests mandatory capture of nominee details and time-bound grievance redressal.
• The petition cites more than 92.2 million inoperative bank accounts and over ₹3.5 lakh crore in unclaimed assets spread across banks, insurers, mutual funds, provident funds and small savings.
• It highlights statutory pools such as DEAF and IEPF holding over ₹1.6 lakh crore and notes many funds belong to deceased individuals whose heirs cannot trace them due to missing nominee information.