Crypto Ban Hearing Slightly Delayed by Supreme Court of India

[maxtra]

The Indian supreme court has rescheduled hearing the crypto case, originally scheduled for July 23 but was not heard on that date. The court is expected to address the writ petitions against the central bank’s crypto restriction as well as the report by the interministerial committee with recommended crypto measures and draft crypto bill. On July 24, the court set a new tentative date of Aug. 2 but later updated it to July 25 for all five pending crypto writ petitions.

It has been a long struggle for the Indian crypto community since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a circular in April last year banning regulated financial institutions from providing services to crypto businesses. The ban went into effect in July last year and banks subsequently closed accounts of crypto exchanges.

Soon after the issuance of the circular, several industry stakeholders filed writ petitions to challenge the ban. The Indian supreme court was scheduled to hear all crypto-related petitions in September last year, but the case was repeatedly postponed.

On June 24, Cryptokart exchange also announced that it is shutting down this month. Founder Gaurang Poddar explained that since the RBI ban took effect:

    The general interest in crypto in India has tanked. Also since the government isn’t going to introduce any regulations and leave it grey for a while, it just makes any long term planning difficult.

The report details that “the committee has recommended a law banning the cryptocurrencies in India and criminalizing carrying on of any activities connected with cryptocurrencies in India.” News.Bitcoin.com recently reported on the bill’s proposed prohibitions and offenses.

Following the publication of his committee’s report, Garg tweeted:

    Committee is very receptive and supportive of distributed ledger technologies and recommends its widespread use in delivering financial services … Private crypto currencies are of no real value. Rightly banned.

According to the minutes of the committee’s meetings, Garg was in favor of regulating cryptocurrency in the first meeting but changed his mind by the third meeting. The committee also recommends the government set up a standing committee. The Finance Ministry described:

    As virtual currencies and its underlying technology are still evolving, the group has proposed that the Government may establish a Standing Committee to revisit the issues addressed in the report as and when required.

While Garg’s tweet could be misconstrued that crypto is already banned in India, many people in the community were quick to point out that his committee has merely proposed a ban and the draft bill is not yet law. There are many steps this bill needs to go through before it becomes law.

The Indian government has also confirmed that cryptocurrency is currently not banned in the country. On July 16, Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, told Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian parliament, that the government has not prohibited cryptocurrency in the country. He additionally clarified that

“Presently, there is no separate law for dealing with issues relating to cryptocurrencies. Hence, all concerned departments and law enforcement agencies, such as RBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax authorities, etc. take action as per the relevant existing laws.”

Source: https://adrypto.com/supreme-court-hearing-of-cryptocurrency-ban-slightly-delayed

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[snipie]

Countries have to regulate cryptocurrencies, not banning it..
With the actual laws, many countries including India have a blurry vision of issues related to cryptocurrencies and are afraid of its use without being able to control it...

[Kemarit]

All the same, India will ban cryptocurrencies, I think that’s what will happen.

They are just delaying the inevitable.

Countries have to regulate cryptocurrencies, not banning it..
With the actual laws, many countries including India have a blurry vision of issues related to cryptocurrencies and are afraid of its use without being able to control it...

Well they could be one of the few countries that would rather ban and curb this innovation. Regulatory framework should be the best thing to do for India. There are a lot of smoke screens why countries decided to ban crypto and they're probably afraid that they will give so much freedom to their people that they decided to put the hammer ban, without weighing the positive benefits the government can get.

[CryptoBry]

With the way things are happening in the Indian government, I think it is going to take a big miracle for the supreme court to stop the inevitable ban and restrictions on cryptocurrency and related business activities. Hence, business firms dealing with cryptocurrency are now shifting their attention somewhere else as the country is facing an uncertain future for this industry. The people of India deserve the chance to be a part of the digital revolution especially for the young population of the country. We are hoping that a big miracle is coming, who knows?

[Kakmakr]

    Committee is very receptive and supportive of distributed ledger technologies and recommends its widespread use in delivering financial services … Private crypto currencies are of no real value. Rightly banned.

You can tell from this statement that the Banks in India already had their claws in the regulators and decision makers on Crypto currency in that country. The Banks and the Indian government wants to introduce their own digital currency, but they want to eliminate competition from other Crypto currencies, so they leave a loophole for the Banks and the government to allow for private and government controlled  "distributed ledger technologies". 

Mark my words, India will have their own Govcoin soon and the Banks in India will have their own PrivateCoins, while other Crypto currencies would be banned. <This is what corrupt governments do> 

[buwaytress]

So today was supposed to be the day, but it's past 12.30 pm already in Delhi and still no news coming out, don't expect this one to be in session and finish only in the afternoon. Didn't see any update from Mr Sethi or anyone else who'd be interested in this case, so assuming it's not happening.

It's got to start first thing in the morning for such a complex case, so them judges know that, and they will once more push this forward. August date then I guess?

[romero121]

    Committee is very receptive and supportive of distributed ledger technologies and recommends its widespread use in delivering financial services … Private crypto currencies are of no real value. Rightly banned.

You can tell from this statement that the Banks in India already had their claws in the regulators and decision makers on Crypto currency in that country. The Banks and the Indian government wants to introduce their own digital currency, but they want to eliminate competition from other Crypto currencies, so they leave a loophole for the Banks and the government to allow for private and government controlled  "distributed ledger technologies".  

Mark my words, India will have their own Govcoin soon and the Banks in India will have their own PrivateCoins, while other Crypto currencies would be banned. <This is what corrupt governments do>  

Agreed, and the draft bill that was submitted to the government was dated February. This describes their clear plan of coming up with their own cryptocurrency. Also in the draft it is described about the need for technology which will be used in the country. Moreover after February India has agreed for the standard set by the FATF.

Probably the hearing will get postponed and there is nothing to fear about the usage as it has signed on G20 which doesn't have any plans of ban on cryptocurrency.

[Herbert2020]

nowadays it is becoming extremely hard for countries to outright ban bitcoin because the adoption has been happening for 10 years and although it is not yet that big but it exists. and also the rest of the world has somewhat accepted bitcoin so if one country like this bans bitcoin they will only make themselves as an "exception" in the whole world. i don't think people would like it or even pay attention to such bans specially when it comes to something fully decentralized like bitcoin which they can not really control.

[7788bitcoin]

nowadays it is becoming extremely hard for countries to outright ban bitcoin because...

Can we say that the country is not progressive enough if it prohibits cryptocurrencies?

Most of the countries than banned bitcoin by now are living in the stone age and we can understand that by checking out their economy and the development they have made in the past several years, corruption and bad governance will shine throughout their decision making skills and that is the case with India, you cannot see a progressive government if they are driving the business outside and then come up with demonetization which will dent the entire growth and they have done all those and banning bitcoin is a matter of time.

[chucho4o]

Definitely India would ban cryptocurrencies but it would lowkey thrive among the big dogs that control the economy cos they are not in a good state economically to accept crypto. They need laws in place to avoid de-use.

[Artemis3]

Every country in this world is at a crossroads: Reject or embrace Bitcoin. So far only 15 countries have rejected it.



This is the same as saying: Reject or embrace more wealth.

When you accept Bitcoin, you are welcoming a new type of wealth, when you reject it, it goes elsewhere. This new type of wealth is similar to foreign investing, it is in a foreign currency, and it can go away any instant. This is where politicians, especially those against free market, have issues with. They are obsessed with being able to "control" things, and this Bitcoin thing is actually beyond their control.

That is why they are afraid.

But none the less, rejecting it means rejecting wealth. Its like turning back tourists at the airport, because you don't need their money. The irony is that the richest Arab countries are looking a bit more friendlier to Bitcoin than the poorer overpopulated India and China. One of those Arab countries can literally turn investors away, they DO have enough wealth... But India? Doesn't look exactly super rich, despite having a rich class in it, like China.

But again, this is a problem of education. If you are Indian, you should be helping do an informative campaign so people can pressure them. Start with social media, set up web sites, try to debate the issue with the politicians on mass media, etc. Be active, you have the most to lose.

[fosamede]

I think the Government has already expressed her intention to ban all cryptocurrencies, the only exceptions will be the digital rupee, which is ironic for a government that want to embrace innovations. The Government control the Supreme Court of India (behind closed-doors). India will fall behind with this move.

[avikz]

The hearing is being delayed since July last year! In the last hearing Supreme Court directed Finance Ministry, SEBI and RBI to submit their view on the cryptocurrency and an inter-ministerial committee was formed to benchmark the general practices and provide guidance! However, everything has gone negative for crypto. I don't think SEBI has yet come up with anything, but nothing seems to be moving towards positive direction for cryptos and seems like they are on the verge of banning it!

We can't expect anything positive in the bureaucrat run administration, so the GREAT INDIAN BRAIN DRAIN is going to continue! Politicians will get away with their holdings and common people like us will be put behind the bars! God save the country!  

[dothebeats]

So today was supposed to be the day, but it's past 12.30 pm already in Delhi and still no news coming out, don't expect this one to be in session and finish only in the afternoon. Didn't see any update from Mr Sethi or anyone else who'd be interested in this case, so assuming it's not happening.

It's got to start first thing in the morning for such a complex case, so them judges know that, and they will once more push this forward. August date then I guess?

Seems like the hearing would be adjourned and no further development regarding today's hearing would get out of those rooms. Either way, we all know what's gonna happen on these type of meetings: they'd delay it so as to let people think that they're reconsidering while in reality, they already have come up with a decision, and that is to possibly ban cryptocurrencies while they can and introduce their own set of crypto to the public which I think is a very hypocritical move. No one in the Indian government is sincerely doing their best to come up with a solution and are focusing on rather useless things other than actually helping their economy.

Even establishing a lobbying group in this case wouldn't help if those seated in the office won't even dare listen to a single word.