Friday, March 29

Mobile Body IAMAI Files petition Against RBI’s Cryptocurrency Ban

The Internet and Mobile Association of India( IAMAI) has filed a written petition in the Supreme Court requesting a stay against the RBI’s order to not allow banks to provide services to cryptocurrency trading platforms.

IAMAI ‘s president Subho Ray has confirmed the filing of petition though he was not available to comment on the matter. It is interesting to note that this marks the fifth petition to be filed against Apex Bank on its order dated 6 April that disallowed entities from dealing in virtual currencies. RBI had given banks a deadline of 6 July to adhere to the new rule.

Last year, several cryptocurrency exchanges had come together to form a collective industry body called Digital and Blockchain Foundation of India. However, in November 2017 the association got merged with IAMAI. Today, many prominent crypto exchange platform like Zebpay, Conisecure and Unocoin are a part of IAMAI.

Earlier this week only a petition was signed by a group of 11 representatives from various crypto related business challenging the constitutional validity of RBI’s order. Flinstone Technologies and Kali Digital had also approached Delhi High Court last month against the RBI’s decision.

Apart from approaching the court directly, many cryptocurrency enthusiasts have also started filing an online petition against Central Bank’s stance of banning banks from dealing with cryptocurrency bodies.

The Petition “Make in India at the forefront of Blockchain Applications revolution” which addresses RBI and the Prime Minister of India has been filed under the name ‘Digital Asset Exchanges of India’ and has received over 44K signatures. Similarly, Change.org has also challenged RBI’s stance asking it to revoke its decision.