Cryptocurrency Ban: RBI’s Circular Denies Constitutional Right To Trade, Says Petitioners’ Lawyer
Is RBI denying businesses their Constitutional right to trade by banning lenders from dealing in cryptocurrencies?
The Reserve Bank of India’s circular that virtually banned all digital currencies in the country is denying a constitutional right to cryptocurrency exchanges and businesses that deal with them.
That’s according to the advocate who is representing some of the petitioners who are seeking a stay on the ban. The matter was today heard by the Supreme Court which refused to overturn the central bank’s ban on lenders from dealing in cryptocurrencies
“It is everybody’s right to trade under the Constitution. There is has to be a good reason for denying me the right, and that good reason does not exist here,” said Anirudh Rastogi, one of the lawyers representing the cryptocurrency exchanges. “If a government circular is seeking to treat a set of business [differently] from another set, there has to be a reasonable differentiation, on the basis of which differential treatment is being meted out.”
Our argument is that if the larger objectives of this legislation are seeking to address concerns of money laundering, of illicit activities and tax evasions, then these kind of concerns stand also true for other kind of transactions and financial service providers.Anirudh Rastogi, Managing Partner, TRA Law
Watch the full interview here: