Trading in Bitcoin in India is refined way of doing Hawala business: Supreme Court
The Hindu
Supreme Court criticizes India's lack of Bitcoin regulation, compares trading to refined Hawala business, questions government's inaction.
The Supreme Court on Monday (March 5, 2025) said trading in Bitcoin in India is like "dealing with a refined way of Hawala business" as it lamented that the Centre has till now not come out with a clear regime on regulating virtual currency.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N. Kotiswar Singh made the remarks while dealing with a bail application of Shailesh Babulal Bhatt who was arrested by the police for alleged illegal Bitcoin trade.
The bench said that two years back while dealing with a case related to Bitcoin trade it had asked the Centre to apprise the court about the policy regime on the trade of virtual currency but till now it has not received any response.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Mr. Bhatt, submitted that trading in Bitcoin is not illegal in India after the apex court quashed a circular of the Reserve Bank of India and therefore his client was wrongly arrested.
Justice Surya Kant told Rohatgi that though he personally does not understand much about Bitcoin, but the court has been telling the Centre that if there is a regulatory regime, there will not be any problem.
“All I understand is that there are some genuine Bitcoin and some are fake Bitcoin,” Justice Surya Jant said and told Mr. Rohatgi, “You see, trading in Bitcoin in India is like dealing with a refined way of Hawala business. There are no regulations at present.” Rohatgi said that Bitcoin has enormous value and one can walk into a showroom in a foreign country with just one bitcoin and buy a car.”
"I checked on Sunday, the value of one Bitcoin was ₹82 lakh," Mr. Rohatgi said, adding that he too does not understand much about the trade.
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