Why still no law on crypto, Supreme Court asks Union government
On Thursday, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered the Union government to state whether it intends to create a federal agency to look into criminal cases involving cryptocurrencies. The SC called it “unfortunate” that the Centre still lacked a law regulating digital currencies and no expert agency to look into such cases.
“You still don’t have any law unfortunately. Do you have an agency at the national level to understand these cases and investigate properly? We want you to identify a national specialised agency, in the national interest. What kind of a quality investigation can you expect when you have a police constable, who gets promoted to an assistant sub-inspector or a sub-inspector, to handle such cases?” a bench of justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta asked.
The bench ruled that several innocent investors in the nation are being defrauded but that there is no national agency that can crack the code in cases involving complex nature of transactions, pleading with the Center to have a legal framework in place to handle cases involving cryptocurrencies. “There needs to be some sort of legislative framework. You can say that it is up to you to determine if you want it or not. But how can you look into people and keep them in jail if you don’t have a system? All of the nation’s money, which is being siphoned out, is what it is after. It resembles hawala. Who is accountable for putting a stop to it? We anticipated that you would speak up and offer some sort of resolution the bench told additional solicitor general Vikramjit Banerjee, who represented the Centre.
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The court pleaded with the Center to have a legal framework in place to manage cases involving cryptocurrency and declared that some innocent investors in the country are being cheated but that there is no national agency that can crack the code in situations involving complex nature of transactions.
A legal framework of some kind is required. You could say that it is entirely up to you to decide whether or not you want it. But without a system, how can you investigate people and keep them behind bars? Its target is the entire amount of money being siphoned off from the country. It is similar to hawala. Who bears responsibility for ending it? We thought you would say something.
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