The Karnataka High Court has extended the interim protection granted to Nyayamithra Sahakari Bank Niyamitha in its challenge to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Urban Cooperative Banks Governance Directions and the subsequent amendment relating to the tenure of directors.
Hearing Writ Petition along with a batch of connected matters, Justice Suraj Govindaraj ordered that the interim relief granted earlier would continue until the next date of hearing. The matter has now been listed for July 31, 2026.
Earlier, on June 15, 2026, the High Court had issued notices to the Union of India, RBI and other respondents after the petitioner challenged the RBI’s Urban Cooperative Banks-Governance Directions dated November 28, 2025, and the Amendment Directions dated May 25, 2026. The Court had also directed that no coercive steps be taken against the petitioner pending further hearing.
One of the challenged amendments, issued by the RBI on May 25, 2026, introduced a three-year cooling-off period for directors completing ten years of continuous tenure on the board of an Urban Cooperative Bank (UCB). It also clarified that interruptions of less than three years would not break the continuity of a director’s tenure for calculating the ten-year limit.
The High Court has not stayed the operation of the RBI’s governance directions. At this stage, it has only continued the interim protection restraining the respondents from taking coercive action against the petitioner bank while the legal challenge remains pending.
The writ petition has been tagged with other connected cases raising similar issues, and the Court will take up the matter for further hearing on July 31, 2026.
