India's Supreme Court to Hold Crypto Lawsuit Hearing in July

The Indian Supreme Court will hold a hearing in July in an effort to decide on the growing number of crypto-related petitions filed against the country's central bank.

The Supreme Court has barred all other courts from accepting petitions in the wake of the filing of five petitions against the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) move to bar banks from dealing with cryptocurrency companies. The RBI published a circular in early April to that effect, saying at the time that the entities it regulates "shall not deal with or provide services to any individual or business entities dealing with or settling [cryptocurrencies]."

The hearing will be held on July 20, according to an Economic Times report.

One of the petitions was filed by a startup called Kali Digital Ecosystems – which planned to launch its crypto exchange, CoinRecoil – has been transferred to the Supreme Court. Two other petitions transferred to the Supreme Court were originally filed in the Delhi High Court and the Calcutta High Court, the Times further reported.

Anirudh Rastogi, a managing partner at the law firm that filed the petitions, told the publication:

"One of the key arguments made out in the petition was that the circular was not preceded by any stakeholder consultation, which is what the latest order gets to."

In the wake of the RBI move, a group of exchanges indicated that they, too, were moving to seek some kind of an appeal against the central bank circular. The goal, as expressed at the time, was to obtain a hearing before the Supreme Court in order to challenge the RBI policy.

Supreme Court of India image via Shutterstock