A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court of India which is seeking an intervention to regulate the flow of bitcoin in India and ensure that it is accountable to the exchequer. "The lack of any concrete mechanism pending the regulatory framework in said regard has left a lot of vacuum and which has resulted in total unaccountability and unregulated Bitcoin (crypto money) trading and transactions," the petition added. The petition was filed by advocate Dwaipayan Bhowmick and the court is seeking responses from the finance, law and justice, information and technology ministries along with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The development was first reported by Bar & Bench. Read the petition here. The petition said that the RBI and SEBI have been trying to shift the onus on each other for regulating bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies as there is confusion whether they would be regulated as a "currency" or a "commodity". Inter-ministerial report In August 2017, an inter-ministerial report was submitted to the Centre by the department of economic affairs but the details of the report were not made open to the public. The committee was set up in April. However, the petition cited some parts of the report which said the following: Bitcoins would fall under the purview of RBI's 1934 Act. (This suggests that the government is looking to regulate Bitcoin as a currency). Bitcoin investors should be taxed. The RBI will have to…
