India Bitcoin Ban Notably Absent From Upcoming Government Discussions

The ominously titled “Banning of Cryptocurrency & Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2019” was introduced in July. It follows the research of a high-level Inter-Ministerial Committee. The group started looking at issues surrounding digital assets and reported its findings in February of this year.

Drafting the Ban

The committee introduced a draft bill that would see the use, mining, and trading of cryptocurrency criminalized. It also recommends harsh prison sentences for those violating the proposed legislation. If the government was to implement the bill in its current form, those holding digital currency would be given three months to dispose of it. You would think anything so destructive to society as to warrant an outright ban and jail sentences to those violating it would be a most pressing concern for legislators in Indian. However, the bill does not appear in the government’s new “Tentative List of Government Legislative and Financial Business” produced recently by Snehlata Shrivastava, the Secretary-General of the Indian parliament, Lok Sabha. Prominent Indian cryptocurrency proponents have greeted the bill’s omission with optimism. Founder and CEO of local cryptocurrency trading platform WazirX Nischal Shetty (@NischalShetty) called it “great news.” He tweeted Shrivastava’s list and the following:

GREAT NEWS for the Crypto ecosystem of India

The draft Crypto banning bill will NOT be included in the upcoming parliament session of November 2019.

Great to see Indian Government not rushing into this. They're listening 🚀https://t.co/rIW3GQmb6l#IndiaWantsCrypto

— Nischal (WazirX) ⚡️ (@NischalShetty) November 15, 2019

As local digital currency news Twitter commentator Crypto Kanoon (@cryptokanoon) pointed out, the government in India was expected to introduce the bill in the Winter parliamentary session. However, it now appears as if lawmakers want more time to consider the potential implications of such a ban. As Shetty concludes, this does indeed seem like a glimmer of hope for the nation’s cryptocurrency industry.

In the petitions praying for Ban or regulation:

Govt. submitted draft regulation before the Court which was submitted to it by Garg Committee.

Govt. requested the Court to adjourn the matter till January as the it intends to introduce the bill in parliament in winter session.

— Crypto Kanoon (@cryptokanoon) August 8, 2019

Ongoing Dispute in India

Meanwhile, in India, there is an ongoing Supreme Court dispute over an April 2018 Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ban on financial institutions doing business with cryptocurrency companies. BeInCrypto has reported on the considerable opposition to the RBI circular. Not only have tens-of-thousands of cryptocurrency proponents petitioned against the policy, the High Court of Delhi called it an overstep of the institution’s power and unconstitutional. Additionally, the Indian Supreme Court criticized RBI this August for its handling of the matter. Rather amusingly, the RBI circular actually hindered India’s authorities from dealing with 244 Bitcoin seized following the takedown of a cryptocurrency investment scam. According to Times of India, Pune police were forced to seek a court directive to unfreeze the bank account of Koinex, the exchange where the seized digital assets were being held at.

In other news. Koinex helped Pune cops sell 244 BTC seized from Gain Bitcoin scam, and now Pune police can't take the funds to their treasury because koinex's bank account is frozen.

INR 8.42 crore on the line.

— Naimish Sanghvi (@ThatNaimish) October 3, 2019

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Images are courtesy of Twitter, Shutterstock.

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