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A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Bombay high court (HC) seeking directions to the central government to enact appropriate laws in order to address the "growing threat of cryptocurrencies" and the malpractices of trading platforms in the country due to a lack of appropriate legislation and statutory authority.

The plea filed by advocate Aditya Kadam, has sought for the High Court to issue directions for formulating law/ rules governing the use of cryptocurrency within India. The petition has asked for preparing a robust mechanism for monitoring international crypto transactions, overseeing the registration of crypto exchange platforms, instituting a proper grievance redressal mechanism against trading platforms, and putting in place a foolproof taxation scheme for such transactions.

The petitioner feels that if court does not direct the government, they may not take steps on an urgent basis which may cause “immense prejudice, injustice, harm, injury and monetary losses not only to the citizens but also to the nation itself as it will lose an enormous amount of revenue by way of taxation,” according to Times of India.

The application also pointed that the it is very easy to commit fraud and cheat people fo their money by creating fake crypto investing platforms. While referring to a 2020 Supreme Court judgment, which set aside a circular of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that barred dealing in cryptocurrencies as there were no laws to regulate the same, the PIL states that the central government failed to formulate laws.

The matter is set to appear later this week, according to Hindustan Times.