Is bitcoin illegal or not? Supreme Court asks Central govt to make its stand clear

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central government to make its stand clear on whether bitcoin is illegal [Ajay Bhardwaj v. Union of India]..A Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant told Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati who was representing the Central government to throw light on this issue."Is it illegal or not. You have to make your stand clear," said Justice Surya Kant."We will do that my lord," replied ASG Bhati.The Court was hearing a petition filed by one of the accused in the GainBitcoin scam - Ajay Bhardwaj seeking quashing of the case against him.He along with mastermind and brother Amit Bhardwaj are accused of running a multi-level marketing scheme promising huge returns to investors. According to Inc42, the scam size which was initially ₹2,000 crores was revised to ₹20,000 crore after increase in bitcoin value.ASG Bhati told the Court on Friday that the case involves 87,000 bitcoins and the accused was not cooperating with investigation."We had issued multiple summons," she said.Advocate Shoeb Alam, representing a complainant, said that he was attacked the same was caught on CCTV cameras."Replies have agreed that bitcoins are currencies. My money has been taken away. FIR was in 2018. This person after bail had tried to attack me and its on CCTV cameras," Alam Said.The Court then proceeded to direct the accused to cooperate with the probe. Pertinently, the Court granted the accused interim protection from arrest. "The IO shall file a status report showing the cooperation meted out by the petitioner accused. List this after 4 weeks. the interim order restraining arrest of the accused will continue till the next date of hearing. interim protection will continue," the Court said.Senior Advocate PC Sen represented the petitioner-accused.