India's supreme court has set a new date to hear the petitions against the cryptocurrency banking ban by the country's central bank. Meanwhile, the crypto community in India is campaigning on social media for "positive regulations" and the rollback of the banking ban.
New Supreme Court Hearing Date
Indian Court Moves Crypto Hearing, Community Calls for Positive RegulationsThe Supreme Court of India has reportedly set a new date to hear the petitions against the crypto banking ban by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The central bank issued a circular in April banning all regulated financial institutions from providing services to crypto businesses. Banks complied and closed accounts of crypto exchanges by July.
A court document circulating on Twitter on Thursday indicates that the supreme court has scheduled Jan. 15, 2019, as the date it will revisit the crypto case.
The court originally scheduled to hear the case on Sept. 11 but continually postponed it. Then, on Oct. 25, it directed the government to submit a counter affidavit within two weeks, detailing its crypto regulatory progress.
According to Quartz India, the government has filed a counter affidavit with the supreme court, stating that it expects the regulatory framework to be finalized in December.
On Saturday, Inc42 reported that the finance ministry's counter affidavit defends the RBI banking ban. The news outlet wrote:
Representatives from the finance ministry submitted that the RBI circular as well as warnings issued by finance ministry on December 29, 2017, and by finance minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech on February 1, 2018, are in line with the first inter-ministerial (interdisciplinary) committee's recommendations on cryptocurrencies.
The finance ministry set up an inter-ministerial committee in November last year, led by its Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, to recommend crypto regulatory measures. The publication noted that this committee has "yet to draft its report." Its next meetings are in December and January.
Community Campaigns for 'Positive Regulations'
The CEO of Indian cryptocurrency exchange Wazirx, Nischal Shetty, started an ongoing Twitter campaign on Oct. 31, calling for "positive regulations" for the Indian crypto industry. Shetty, who has over 55,100 followers on Twitter, wrote:
Please bring positive regulations in crypto and over 5 million crypto Indians will be thankful to you. Youth of India have found a new way to make wealth & this is especially important when there are not enough jobs for everyone.
He added, "We need to tweet to our ministers every day till we get [a] reply. The more we tweet the more chances of our voices being heard and crypto getting a positive regulation in India."
Shetty plans to continue the campaign "till the time the government takes a positive stance on regulating cryptocurrency in India," Inc42 quoted him emphasizing. The CEO elaborated:
We are worried about the RBI's banking ban on crypto. It has hampered the entire crypto sector of India and the innovations that come along.
In addition, the news outlet noted that crypto exchange Bitbns started a campaign on Change.org, demanding the repeal of the RBI circular. This petition has garnered 44,626 signatories at press time.