Lawyer moves Bombay High Court seeking regulation of cryptocurrency market

A Mumbai lawyer has approached the Bombay High Court by way of a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking directions to the Central government to formulate laws to govern the use and trade of cryptocurrency within the country..Through the PIL, the petitioner, advocate Aditya Kadam has highlighted the unregulated business of cryptocurrency in the country which he has claimed affects the rights of the investors as there is no mechanism in law to redress their grievances..The PIL pointed out that despite the Supreme Court judgement in the case of Internet Mobile Association of India v. Reserve Bank of India, the Central government has failed to enact appropriate regulations to protect the interest of the citizens..“There is an imminent threat of rise in the number of money laundering cases, illicit trade of drugs, terror financing by trade of crypto currency which the government authorities have failed to curtail,” the PIL underscored..Kadam also submitted that he had made a representation on September 30, 2021 drawing attention of the several respondents to the underlying problem of cryptocurrency market. However, till date he did not receive any response to the representation..The “lackadaisical attitude” of the authorities compelled Kadam to approach the High Court seeking its intervention to protect the citizen’s interest, he contended..Kadam has raised the following grounds in his PIL:Lack of clear policy on cryptocurrency has resulted in enormous losses to the revenue of the State;Anyone may create a trading platform as there are no rules and dupe innocent investors for illegal purpose including for frauds or terror financing;As per available information, several countries like Singapore, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America, European Union, Japan, etc have enacted statutory enactments to deal with cryptocurrency trade and platforms;