We are edging ever closer to a final decision being made on the status of cryptocurrencies within India. As it stands, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have essentially banned cryptocurrency. As a result of this, the community have led a charge for the decision to be overturned, which in turn has led to a case being brought into the Supreme Court of India. Now, the Supreme Court are set to hear a final plea from both the RBI and the Mobile Association of India (IMAI) who are leading the defence case. After this, we expect that a final decision will be made.

According to CCN:

“The original hearing was scheduled on September 11, but due to the court’s backlog hearings of other cases and RBI’s delay of filing its response, the session witnessed two consecutive reschedulings. The response from the central bank came finally around September 12. In its affidavit, RBI reserved its views on the cryptocurrency ban, telling the court that no legal system defines cryptocurrencies in its current format.”

Within its affidavit, the RBI have stated:

“The petitioner cannot seek to exercise the extraordinary jurisdiction of this Honorable Court to avail a right which they do not have. The impugned circular and the impugned statement have been issued in a manner that is consistent with the powers conferred on the RBI by the law and the same are legal and valid.”

In essence, the RBI’s argument here is that IMAI actually have no authority over the matter and have no right to actually challenge the ruling of the RBI. The challenge by IMAI however is that they believe the RBI have made a decision based on no prior research or knowledge, they have entered this space without becoming fully informed first, which is a dramatic error and one that has clouded their judgement enough for them to ban cryptocurrency.

The Supreme Court of India will be left to make a final decision. If the RBIs ruling is overturned then cryptocurrency will no doubt be made legal, though we would expect in this instance, the Supreme Court will call for regulations to follow on a government level. Essentially, India soon have an established legal framework that regulates cryptocurrency.

On the other hand, the RBI ruling could be set in stone if the Supreme Court decide the RBI have acted within their rights. If this is the case, further laws and sanctions will be put in place to ensure that cryptocurrency trading and investment is made totally illegal.

It’s an uncertain time for cryptocurrency in India. The Supreme Court have a very big decision to make. One thing that is certain - whatever the decision, the markets will react to it, therefore the state of Bitcoin et al could change dramatically over the coming days. Hold on.

CCN