Quick Recap before Today’s Hearing on RBI Ban in Supreme Court

The Apex court will hear a petition from Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in court today for a stay order against RBI’s virtual ban on cryptocurrency trading in India.

Quick Recap of How we got here in Supreme Court

On April 5, RBI announced a ring fencing on banks in the first bi-monthly Monetary policy press conference. The announcement banned all banks and other regulated entities from working with individuals or companies that trade in cryptocurrencies. The central bank has given three months to the banks to wind up the existing relationships.

The three months deadline to unwind all businesses ends tentatively on July 5.

On April 6, RBI sent a notification titled “Prohibition on dealing in Virtual Currencies (VCs)” to all entities.

On April 16, a petition from Coinrecoil, cryptocurrency exchange planning to start operations in India from Ahmedabad was admitted to the Delhi High Court against RBI. The case was listed for hearing on May 24, 2018. Many more appeals were filed in various other high courts in future weeks.

On May 1, four prominent Indian exchanges Koinex, Coindelta, Coindcx and Throughbit with a few individuals filed a writ petition in the Supreme court of India for interim relief from the RBI ban.

On May 10, the Interim relief request was rejected by the Supreme court and the case was tagged with two more pending cases in Supreme court. Case No – 34785/2017 and 35252/2017. One is asking the government to clear its stance on Cryptocurrency and another one is asking for a ban on Crypto.

On May 17, Supreme Court orders all the pending cases against RBI’s notification in lower courts to be moved to Supreme court. Additionally the case was pushed for next hearing to July 20, after the Supreme court summer vacation

During the same time, a new writ petition was filed by the Internet and Mobile association of India (IAMAI) to get a stay order on RBI’s notification. The case was heard in the vacation court and was listed for July 3, as the matter is urgent (July 5 being the deadline for banks).

July 3, today, the case has been listed and will be heard by the bench of judges including the Chief Justice of India, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Jutice D.Y. Chandrachud. The same bench will also be hearing the other case on July 20.

Supreme Court Hearing

The Case will be heard in court No 1, aka the chief justice’s court today after 10:30 AM. You can keep an eye on the display board to see if the case is being heard.

Case Details

Case Number: W.P.(C) No. 000528 – / 2018

Petitioner: INTERNET AND MOBILE ASSOCIATION OF INDIA

Petitioner’s Lawyer: Taruna Singh Gohil

Respondent: RESERVE BANK OF INDIA

Respondent’s lawyer: Harpreet Singh Ajmani

Cause List Number on July 3, 2018: 23

What do you think will be the Court’s decision? Let us know in the comment below







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