India’s Supreme Court has demanded the country’s central bank and the government to check for bitcoin transactions in relation to terrorism funding and money laundering.

According to a regional report today, the Supreme Court of India – the highest and final court in the country – has given the central government and the Reserve Bank of India (India’s central bank) a four-week deadline to ‘examine all security related issues pertaining to virtual currencies including bitcoin.’

The Supreme Court is also seeking information on the steps taken by the government and the RBI to ensure digital currencies aren’t used for terror funding and money laundering.

A separate report by LiveMint today cites insiders in revealing that the government is looking to track bitcoin transactions via the central bank and SEBI, India’s capital markets regulator.

India is currently exploring the regulatory and legislative future of digital currencies in the country via an inter-governmental committee tasked to study and propose a framework for digital currencies.

‘The panel discussed the possibility of asking India’s central bank, the Securities and Exchange Board (Sebi), the revenue department and Financial Intelligence Unit to develop infrastructure for observing transactions in virtual currencies,’ the LiveMint report claims, citing people familiar with the matter.

India’s finance minister held an inter-ministerial meeting in late June to examine and discuss risks related to virtual currencies like bitcoin.

The panel is expected to return a report this month. By nearly every account, Indian authorities are set to regulate the local bitcoin industry and even tax bitcoin adopters. A ban is highly unlikely.

Supreme Court image from Wikimedia.