On 4 March 2020 the Supreme Court of India delivered a judgement on ability of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to direct ‘…the entities regulated by RBI (i) not to deal with or provide services to any individual or business entities dealing with or settling virtual currencies and (ii) to exit the relationship, if they already have one, with such individuals/ business entities, dealing with or settling virtual currencies (VCs).’.
When this directive was announced it caused a bit of FUD in the cryptomarkets…nothing unusual as the cryptomarkets are used to this, but India is not a small country, it is hugely important to the cryptomarkets because of it vast computer science industry.
The ruling on 4 March 2020 essentially overturned the RBI’s directive. This is positive news, but as Tanvi Ratna sets out in this excellent video analysis of the case, this is not the end of the matter, we can expect to see more, hopefully less drastic, regulatory measures coming out of India (as indeed is the case elsewhere in the world) over the coming years.
Of particular interest to me is the comments around the India Constitution and the reference to S 19(1) which is about the right to practice any profession or trade.
A ruling itself and can be found at this link. It is a great reference, it has a very thorough analysis of the nature of crypto currencies as viewed by the many regulators around the world.