[2017-11-15] Government Causes Bitcoin to Land in India's Supreme Court

[krishnapramod]

Recently there have been reports that RBI is planning to ban Bitcoin in India. A petition seeking the indecisive government to act on Bitcoin has landed in India's Supreme Court. A PIL (Public Interest Litigation) petition has been filed before the Indian Supreme Court, seeking it to issue directions to regulate the flow of Bitcoin and ensure that it is made accountable to the exchequer.

The petitioner, Dwaipayan Bhowmick, said:

"It is submitted that certain countries have made Bitcoin subject to their respective tax regimes, while a few other countries have designated it as a commodity, thereby making Bitcoin subject to government regulation and accountable to exchequer but no such mechanism exists in India till date."

The petitioner also argued that regulatory organizations like the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) were trying to shirk their responsibility with respect to regulating Bitcoin.

While there are multiple Bitcoin exchanges like Coinsecure, Zebpay and Unocoin operating in India, the regulators have not come out with any guidelines for Bitcoin operations. The RBI has in the past (2013 and 2017) warned investors about the risks involved in investing in cryptocurrencies.

As seen in the past, courts often step in to adjudicate when governments fail to offer clear guidance. It is preferable that governments take the opinions of experts and provide clarity on their stance on cryptocurrencies, else regulation will be built on a piecemeal basis from judicial pronouncements.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/indecisive-government-causes-bitcoin-to-land-in-indias-supreme-court

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[jjacob]

It will be interesting to note what the Supreme Court actually says here. Course have been known to voice their opinions on anything and everything. The government is parallely working on guidelines for regulation.

[Fire Rabbit]

Its really foolishness to ban bitcoin. I am sure that they wont take such a stupid decision.
All major countries started to accept bitcoin and if India bans bitcoin then its like stopping the progress of Indians.
That too India is one of the major IT hubs of the world. Two months back, I read somewhere that the government is going to regulate bitcoin under goods and commodities law. Anyways lets wait for the final decision.

[richardsNY]

Its really foolishness to ban bitcoin. I am sure that they wont take such a stupid decision. All major countries started to accept bitcoin and if India bans bitcoin then its like stopping the progress of Indians. That too India is one of the major IT hubs of the world. Two months back, I read somewhere that the government is going to regulate bitcoin under goods and commodities law. Anyways lets wait for the final decision.

Governments will do everything they think is a good move for them. If that means banning Bitcoin in whatever shape or form, they will do it without hesitation. Governments should understand that banning Bitcoin isn't an option, because the only thing they are doing is driving the market to go 'underground' (i.e. peer based trading), which means that the government will lose control entirely. In easy terms, people will always be able to buy Bitcoin or other crypto currencies, which is something that can't be stopped. Regulations allow governments to somewhat know what's going on, who owns what, where does the invested money go to, etc.

[aso118]

Its really foolishness to ban bitcoin. I am sure that they wont take such a stupid decision.
All major countries started to accept bitcoin and if India bans bitcoin then its like stopping the progress of Indians.
That too India is one of the major IT hubs of the world. Two months back, I read somewhere that the government is going to regulate bitcoin under goods and commodities law. Anyways lets wait for the final decision.

India is a country which banned the use of its own notes through demonetization. It won't take a big jump for it to ban Bitcoin. It will be interesting to see what the courts say. Will they apply outdated laws and come out with a judgement..

[centralbanksequalsbombs]

Having a country scare its own public of "ban" of Bitcoin will be detrimental as her population will fall behind on the wealth curve of the world and become more poor than others.

With that said, Bitcoin has already been banned all over the world by all big banks in nearly all countries since 2013 (for over 4-years) and the banks have completely failed at stopping Bitcoin's growth. At a bank, just try to do a bank transaction say its for "Bitcoin" and watch your transaction be blocked for review.

BUT Everyone in all countries are still finding a way to get Bitcoins. They simply never say "Bitcoin" when dealing with banks. People are smart.

Notice how Bitcoin has for years successfully defeated all opposition?

[jjacob]

Having a country scare its own public of "ban" of Bitcoin will be detrimental as her population will fall behind on the wealth curve of the world and become more poor than others.

With that said, Bitcoin has already been banned all over the world by all big banks in nearly all countries since 2013 (for over 4-years) and the banks have completely failed at stopping Bitcoin's growth. At a bank, just try to do a bank transaction say its for "Bitcoin" and watch your transaction be blocked for review.

BUT Everyone in all countries are still finding a way to get Bitcoins. They simply never say "Bitcoin" when dealing with banks. People are smart.

Notice how Bitcoin has for years successfully defeated all opposition?

A ban would only be detrimental to the country's law abiding citizens. The criminals and tax waders would continue to use Bitcoins. As long as Bitcoin is fungible and accepted by people across the globe, they would be happy to do business in bitcoins. And they profit from an appreciating currency as well.

[Guardian.P]

Watching such news about the prohibition of bitcoin in different countries, it seems to me that  in Bitcoin is only looking for a negative one. Maybe we should look at the positive side of this coin

[centralbanksequalsbombs]

Having a country scare its own public of "ban" of Bitcoin will be detrimental as her population will fall behind on the wealth curve of the world and become more poor than others.

With that said, Bitcoin has already been banned all over the world by all big banks in nearly all countries since 2013 (for over 4-years) and the banks have completely failed at stopping Bitcoin's growth. At a bank, just try to do a bank transaction say its for "Bitcoin" and watch your transaction be blocked for review.

BUT Everyone in all countries are still finding a way to get Bitcoins. They simply never say "Bitcoin" when dealing with banks. People are smart.

Notice how Bitcoin has for years successfully defeated all opposition?

A ban would only be detrimental to the country's law abiding citizens. The criminals and tax waders would continue to use Bitcoins. As long as Bitcoin is fungible and accepted by people across the globe, they would be happy to do business in bitcoins. And they profit from an appreciating currency as well.

There's no way for a country to enforce any actual ban once an individual obtains bitcoin. All they can do is block exchanges from operating and certain businesses.

[Digitalbitcoin]

Having a country scare its own public of "ban" of Bitcoin will be detrimental as her population will fall behind on the wealth curve of the world and become more poor than others.

With that said, Bitcoin has already been banned all over the world by all big banks in nearly all countries since 2013 (for over 4-years) and the banks have completely failed at stopping Bitcoin's growth. At a bank, just try to do a bank transaction say its for "Bitcoin" and watch your transaction be blocked for review.

BUT Everyone in all countries are still finding a way to get Bitcoins. They simply never say "Bitcoin" when dealing with banks. People are smart.

Notice how Bitcoin has for years successfully defeated all opposition?

A ban would only be detrimental to the country's law abiding citizens. The criminals and tax waders would continue to use Bitcoins. As long as Bitcoin is fungible and accepted by people across the globe, they would be happy to do business in bitcoins. And they profit from an appreciating currency as well.

There's no way for a country to enforce any actual ban once an individual obtains bitcoin. All they can do is block exchanges from operating and certain businesses.

Yes its true.

Bitcoin is commodity. And anyone can hold it, generate it with proper knowledge. Also person is doing it with own risk involvement of asset and equity. Same like as agriculture. As I know that in India there is some tax reduction for agriculture.

So if we consider blockchain as invention of last 10 centuries, just like as agriculture, why should person pay tax for it. And why should government ban it. As it have certain value in global market.

Government must have to consider for blockchain technology implementation, Bitcoin will automatically get valued more preciously.

[Baofeng]

Its really foolishness to ban bitcoin. I am sure that they wont take such a stupid decision.
All major countries started to accept bitcoin and if India bans bitcoin then its like stopping the progress of Indians.
That too India is one of the major IT hubs of the world. Two months back, I read somewhere that the government is going to regulate bitcoin under goods and commodities law. Anyways lets wait for the final decision.

India is a country which banned the use of its own notes through demonetization. It won't take a big jump for it to ban Bitcoin. It will be interesting to see what the courts say. Will they apply outdated laws and come out with a judgement..

Good point about the demonetization they did about a year ago. They reason out that to curb dirty money then have to demonetization Rupees which put a lot of pressure to their economics and their citizens as well. So bitcoin will go the same route in my opinion.

It's going to be a long uphill climb for bitcoin to be regulated in India. Too much officials there are very critical of bitcoin, although there is a fairly large Indian community here, but the government doesn't see bitcoin as more of incentive for their citizens but rather a liability. So for my Indian friends just prepare for the worst if things didn't went as planned.

[entrepmind23]

Governments will do everything they think is a good move for them. If that means banning Bitcoin in whatever shape or form, they will do it without hesitation. Governments should understand that banning Bitcoin isn't an option, because the only thing they are doing is driving the market to go 'underground' (i.e. peer based trading), which means that the government will lose control entirely. In easy terms, people will always be able to buy Bitcoin or other crypto currencies, which is something that can't be stopped. Regulations allow governments to somewhat know what's going on, who owns what, where does the invested money go to, etc.

It's like saying if you can't beat them, join them. Banning bitcoin would just make people transact it hidden in the government's eyes which would make it harder for the officials to track the activity of the people. If they would just regulate it then they would know what is happening and they can have funds from it as well whereas in banning it, they wouldn't have any share from the transaction.

There is an increasing interest of bitcoin in India so if in case the Supreme Court would decide to ban it, some people may stop using it but there would be some who will continue and they will be force to go underground which would be disadvantageous to the government.