RBI Favoured By Supreme Court Of India and Responds To Petitions Against It's Circular!
In a rather expected turn of events the Supreme Court of India has declined temporary injunction against RBI’s circular which mandates a ban on banking services to cryptocurrency exchanges in India. This was expected as it was highly unlikely that Supreme Court would intervene in national policy related matters without further hearings on the petitions filed.
On 6th of April, RBI released a circular which allows banks providing services to cryptocurrency exchanges in India until the 5th of July to stop providing banking services. This has put hundreds of thousands of investors from India in jeopardy leading to panic sells in the past month.
Supreme Court however has fixed the next date for hearing on the 17th of May. Crypto Kanoon group is taking the fight against RBI’s decision to the highest court in India. Meanwhile, RBI has come out with a detailed response to the petitions filed against it in the court.
As reported by CryptoKanoon in their post, RBI stated the following in its response:
1. Court cannot interfere with the economic policies.
The RBI has stated that the Petitioner’s own view on the matter of policy which may be at variance with those of policy makers cannot be a basis of challenge against economic decisions taken by the Government until there is a clear violation of, or non-compliance by the State, of Constitutional or Statutory provisions. The Court indeed has power to strike down a law on the ground of want of authority but it cannot sit in Appeal over the policy of the Parliament in enacting a law and testing correctness of economic policies.
2. Bitcoin is not a ‘Currency’ under the existing laws of India.
The RBI stated that Crypto-currencies fall far short of being a true ‘Currency’ as there is no enabling provision under the existing laws to treat Bitcoin as currency. As per the relevant laws including Indian Coinage Act, 2011, Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and the Payments and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, the Crypto currencies do not fit in any of the definitions of ‘currency’ or ‘money’ provided under the Indian law. Therefore, the question of RBI declaring them as legal or illegal does not arise.
3. Two committees constituted by the Government to Study Crypto currency.
Government through Ministry of Finance constituted an Inter-Disciplinary Committee (IDC) on 15th March, 2017 which is chaired by Special Secretary (Economic Affairs) with representatives from department of economic affairs, Department of Financial Services, Department of Revenue (CBDT), Ministry of Home affairs, Ministry of Economics and Information Technology, RBI, SEBI, NITI Aayog and State Bank of India to examine the, (1) present Status of Virtual currencies in India; (2) the regulatory approach adopted globally and; (3) to suggest framework for regulation in India. The RBI has given its views to the Committee and now the further course of action is dependent on the decision of the Government and the responsibilities delineated by it to regulatory and enforcement agencies.
But it gets interesting because as we know currently government of India has setup a committee to study implications and issues surrounding cryptocurrencies. Therefore, in such a scenario it cannot decide on behalf of the government to ban banking services on its own.
RBI seems to think it can do anything it wants without disclosing the reasons which has such terrible implications on growth and development of blockchain technology, startups and investment from India.
It's decision is hampering the growth of this sector. It is also leading to flight of several startups and existing companies to other nations. People are also moving to p2p channels for trading as they can bypass the government and restrictive policies of the central bank.
I have my fingers crossed for the 17th May hearing in the Supreme Court for petitions filed there. There is also a hearing on the 24th of May in the Delhi high court for the petitions filed by Coin Recoil and others.
This was an update on the matter and I hope to come back with further details on this. Some exchanges have decided not to get involved in a fight against the government as they are planning to shifting focus towards crypto-crypto trading as well as moving to other markets. Hopefully, these individuals who are fighting for our right to trade cryptocurrencies in India will win for us all.
It's my sincere hope that the Supreme Court will undo the wrong doing by the central bank of the country. It's a pity that our governance relies on bans and chooses to remain ignorant.
If you like my work kindly resteem it to your friends. You may also continue reading my recent posts which might interest you:
- Building A List Of Users From India—Please Fill This Form ASAP!
- Why You Should Vote For @firepower As Witness—Witness Campaign Post From India!
- Steem.Chat Contest #26
SteemBirds Video Comment for @firepower
Woohoo! That was awesome you guys! Thank you so much for doing this! :D
Always a pleasure! 😎😎
This is an innovative and fun an entertaining way to give a comment. Great idea you guys @steembirds! Not only are you on point but also in tune. Lovely melody :D
Ha thx! Glad ur enjoying it 😎
Hahahahaahhahaahaha! @steembirds, you guys are the best. We definitely can win this fight with much @firepower. :-D
Haha @steembirds that was awesome!
Honestly this tug-of-war is so tiring! If they make a decision and stick to it no matter how bad if is. I get to focus on back doors and loopholes 😂
I don't get RBI's first explanation that you posted above. What does it mean that Supreme court has no authority over financial policies? In the later point, it said that it has no power to legalise or criminalize the cryptocurrencies.
And we all know that cryptocurrencies are not something of criminal nature, because it is neutral, and criminals are humans only. Then who gave it the authority to ban the banks and not letting people buy or sell cryptocurrencies? It never banned guns and ammunition companies, yet guns are used to kill. It never banned petrol companies, yet petrol causes the smoke and therefore pollution. It didn't ban auto companies, yet number of vehicles meet the accidents everyday and therefore about more than 1 million people die each year.
It never banned tobacco companies from dealing with the banks, yet tobacco cancer kills more than 150,000 people each year.
Conclusion is that Central bank is criminal, not cryptocurrencies, because it has the people behind it who want profits for banks at the cost of people's freedom and money.
@firepower please guide us for next step.
We are in deep fear and confusion.
What happen if the BANN will permanent ???
What happen with our cryptocurrency???
Please guide us.
We have many expectations & faith upon you.
Fingers crossed. I hope someone in the Indian Judiciary has the balls or sense to even raise a doubt on RBI's stupidest decision. Not a fan of p2p exchanges but if it comes to that, then so be it.
Thanks @firepower for the update. Let's hope for the best!
Well it looks like India don't like Development 😐
Our government doing each and everything to stop our own development and if india bans cryptocurrency then this will the wrost decision by our government and many people will surely move in those foreign countries where Cryptocurrencies are valid and those who stay in India will surely use illegal ways to buy and sell Cryptocurrencies,soo tjis might be the wrost move by our indian government till date for stopping our own growth.
They must be really stupid if they ban cryptocurency in India. Indian investors will lost a lot of money and that will make no improvement to India generally in terms of economic advancement. What do you expect when the people in your place loose their money? Of course the trust in government will decline and more people will be in debt.
India is suffering from hatred among themselves... people are killing minorities & poors. Gov let's it happen as it reduces population ... so they are using hatred instead of crypto to solve economy & money problems.
Saya bukan hanya ingin mengikuti anda, akan tetapi juga memamerkan post anda. Kemudia gunakan untuk melakukan sesuatu yang pasti membantu mengajarkan saya di Steemit, luar biasa.😍 dan terima kasih, Regards
This is off topic
But RBI is a rip off from the name FBI
I agree i almost read fbi instead of rbi
Great news and nice article. Resteemed.
Bitcoin is not a currency and that really helps with legislation. It should be a collectible similar to gold bullion. Only downside is slightly higher taxes on gains.