New Delhi:
The Supreme Court said on Monday that trading in bitcoin in India is like “a refined manner of the havildar business” as it mourns that the Center has not yet come out with a clear governance on regulating the virtual currency.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N. Kotiswar Singh commented with the bail application of Shailesh Babulal Bhatt, which was arrested by the police for alleged illegal bitcoin trade.
The bench said that while dealing with the case related to bitcoin trade, it had asked the Center to make the court aware of the policy regime on virtual currency trade, but so far it has not received any response.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohtgi, who was present for Bhatt, said trading in bitcoin is not illegal in India, as the apex court had abolished a circular of the Reserve Bank of India and hence his customer was wrongly arrested.
Justice Surya Kant told Rohtgi that although he does not personally understand much about bitcoin, the court is telling the Center that if there is any regulatory rule, there will be no problem.
Justice Surya Jant said, “I all understand that there are some real bitcoins and some fake bitcoins,” Rohtgi said that bitcoin has a lot of value and can run in a showroom in a foreign country in which only one bitcoin and car can be purchased.
“I checked on Sunday, the value of a bitcoin was 82 lakh rupees,” Rohtgi said, saying that he too does not understand much about business.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, who was present for the Gujarat government and the Enforcement Directorate, said that they want to register a detailed counter for bail application as it was not about bitcoin trade alone.
The apex court gave the state 10 days and ED to register its response and listed it for hearing on May 19.
Bhatt has claimed that he was arrested by the police on August 14 last year and he has been in custody since then. He challenged the order of the Gujarat High Court on 25 February, refusing to grant him bail in the case.
In January last year, the Center informed the apex court that it was still to take a decision on a mechanism to regulate cryptocurrency and effectively investigate the related crimes.
On 25 February 2022, the apex court asked the Center whether the cryptocurrency trade that incorporates bitcoin or any other currencies is legal in India.
The apex court belonged to a number of FIRs registered against a person, which was registered against a person for allegedly grieving investors across India to do business in bitcoins and by assuring high returns.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is published by a syndicated feed.)
