Delhi High Court issues notice in plea against SBI decision to block UPI payments on crypto platform WazirX

The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued notice in a plea challenging an order of State Bank of India (SBI) to block UPI services on cryptocurrency exchange platform WazirX (Arnav Gulati v. State Bank of India and Ors)..The Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice to SBI, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as well as the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Department of Financial Services. The respondents have been given time till December 24 to file their responses..The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by law student Arnav Gulati, who claimed that WazirX is used by nearly 1 crore people. Blocking UPI payments on the platform goes against the March 2020 judgment of the Supreme Court allowing banks to deal in transactions involving cryptocurrency, the plea said. Such a decision is also against an RBI circular of May 2021 and other notifications issued by the NPCI which stated that it would not ban cryptocurrency transactions, it was argued..The petition filed through Advocate Siddharth Acharya, said that to deposit money into the account of WazirX, the platform provides options of bank transfer, net banking, wallet transfer, UPI etc. It is stated that payment options other than UPI take time to get completed and involve extra charges like convenience fees, GST etc, which makes it difficult for retail investors to get the funds on time.“The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood and making the whole transaction quite simple. It is a unique feature as it allows immediate money transfer through mobile devices round the clock 24*7 and 365 days," the plea stated.This will result in users not being able to trade or invest in cryptocurrency in a timely manner, which will in turn make them suffer losses, the petition said..On these grounds, it was prayed that SBI be directed to take back its decision prohibiting UPI payments on crypto exchanges. Also prayed for was a direction to RBI to regulate and govern the cryptocurrency sector and to make provisions for payment interfaces.