Indian advocate asks court to either regulate or prohibit Bitcoin

Criminal organizations, drug merchants and extortionists use Bitcoin in their shady activities, reminds Bivas Chatterjee in his public interest litigation sent to the Calcutta High Court. He is the member of the government responsible for the regulation and prevention of criminal activities in the cyberspace, as noted by the local news reports.

This complaint will be reviewed and the hearings will begin on February 2. One might assume the Calcutta High Court is not going to defend Bitcoin, as the authorities of India repeatedly made it clear they are not thrilled with cryptocurrency activities in their country.

As the latest example, Indian banks started to sabotage such activities by using payment transaction restrictions and they also hamper withdrawals. Local cryptocurrency exchanges even started to notify their client base about this, and lawyers who defend the interests of the said exchanges report that banks even use informal methods of persuasion to suppress the market.

Throughout the past year, there were reports on multiple attempts by the Indian government to restrict Bitcoin trading. For example, in July 2017, the local Ministry of Finance recommended that the sale of Bitcoin be prohibited.