SBI resolves hurdle of ST status for Arunachal Christians

The bank said its IT team modified the authentication logic across the YONO and re-KYC platforms to fix the glitch. File | Photo credit: Reuters

GUWAHATI

The Arunachal Christian Forum (ACF) has welcomed the resolution of a software glitch that prevented Christian applicants from selecting “Scheduled Tribe” when opening bank accounts or filling out Know Your Customer (KYC) forms with the State Bank of India (SBI).

In a letter dated October 14, the head of SBI’s regional business office in Itanagar said the issue raised at the forum had been resolved. The bank said its IT team modified the authentication logic across the YONO and re-KYC platforms to fix the glitch.

On October 5, the ACF complained that the SBI software disabled the ST option when the applicant chose “Christian” as the religion, forcing them to check the “General” category. The forum pointed out that tribal status in Arunachal Pradesh was not dependent on religious affiliation under the Constitution (Scheduled Tribe) Order, 1950, and said such software was “potentially discriminatory”.

“SBI is not the competent authority to remove a tribal Christian customer who is in possession of a valid ST certificate. SBI cannot automatically classify tribal Christians into General category only on the basis of their declared religion,” the ACF letter said.

Appreciating the SBI’s move, the forum said, “The resolution is a positive outcome of our engagement with the banking authorities. The objective of our intervention was to ensure that eligible Christian members of the ST communities can correctly record their religion and category in the bank’s digital system,” an ACF spokesperson said.

Published – 16 Oct 2026 6:30 PM IST