Acceding to the Reserve Bank of India, the Supreme Court of India has barred lower courts from hearing any more petitions pertaining to cryptocurrency. The Supreme Court will hold a hearing in July that will likely determine the fate of cryptocurrency in India.
In April, the Reserve Bank of India issued a circular[1] that prohibited subordinate financial institutions (like commercial banks) from dealings in cryptocurrencies. Since then, petitions for exceptions to this rule have flooded into courts around the country. On Thursday, May 17, the Supreme Court of India sided with arguments from Shyam Divan, counsel for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), to stay all cases and bar all state-level high courts from entertaining any further petitions.
Substantiated by local media with apparent access to official documentation[2], the Supreme Court has also directed the transfer of three related pending petitions – specifically two from the Delhi High Court and one from the High Court in Calcutta – in an attempt to consolidate the rapidly expanding legal proceedings into one comprehensive judgement on the legitimacy of cryptocurrency.
Such a ruling could take place during the next hearing on the matter, which may occur on July 20, 2018. The Supreme Court has also reportedly[3] sought the assistance of the attorney general in the matter.
Chief Justice Dipak Misra presided over the consolidation ruling, siding with the RBI's Divan.
On April, 6, 2018, the Reserve Bank of India – which has previously said that it will not issue a cryptocurrency of its own (known as a CBDC[4]) – issued a declaration[5] "in view of the associated risks" against regulated entities having any dealings in cryptocurrency, to include:
- maintaining accounts
- registering, trading, settling, or
