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The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to clear its stand on whether bitcoins, a cryptocurrency is legal in India or not. 

A bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Surya Kant was hearing a bail cancellation plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against Ajay Bhardwaj in Gain Bitcoin scam. Amit Bhardwaj was arrested in March 2018 and later was granted bail by the Supreme Court on April 3, 2019.

Today, the ED informed the Top Court that multiple summons against Bhardwaj have been issued in an alleged case involving 87,000 bitcoins and he has not cooperated in the investigation.

At this juncture, the bench told Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati who appeared for the ED, that the Centre must make it stand clear as to the legality of the cryptocurrency.

Bench went on to order the accused to cooperate with the investigating officer and stated that the interim order restraining arrest of the accused shall continue till the next date of hearing.

The Court went on to list the case after 4 weeks.

While presenting the Budget 2022, the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the government has only taxed the profits emanating from cryptocurrency transactions and not done anything to legalise or ban or regulate it.

Recently, the Supreme Court observed that “money laundering is a crime worse than murder, akin to terrorism as it destabilises the Nation’s financial system”. 

Case Title: Ajay Bhardwaj vs Union of India