Chennai: In a major order, Madras high court has held that cryptocurrency could be handled as a property, which is capable of being loved and possessed (in a helpful kind) and is capable of being held in belief.“Within the Indian legislation regime, cryptocurrency is handled as a digital digital asset, and it is not handled as a speculative transaction. This is in view of the truth that the funding made by the consumer is transformed into cryptocurrency, which is capable of being saved, traded, and offered. Cryptocurrency is termed as a digital digital asset and is ruled underneath Part 2(47A) of the Earnings Tax Act,” Justice N Anand Venkatesh stated on Friday.The court docket handed the order on a plea moved by Rhutikumari to restrain Zanmai Labs Pvt Ltd and its administrators from interfering with the portfolio holding of the applicant to the tune of 3,532.30 XRP cash on the WazirX platform, both by redistribution, apportionment, or reallocation.Opposing the plea, WazirX contended that it is not the proprietor of crypto wallets. The platform was affected by a large hack, and consumer withdrawals had been halted underneath a court-approved restructuring scheme in Singapore. Beneath that scheme, all customers (together with the applicant) would obtain pro-rata compensation by means of a three-step course of supervised by the Singapore excessive court docket. Therefore, the Madras excessive court docket lacked the jurisdiction, it added.Recording the submissions, the court docket rejected the argument that it lacks jurisdiction on the bottom that the arbitration was seated in Singapore. The court docket noticed that the applicant transferred funds from her checking account in Chennai to buy crypto property and that she accessed the platform from inside India. On that foundation, a component of the trigger of motion was held to have arisen throughout the territorial jurisdiction of the Madras excessive court docket and granted an interim injunction towards Zanmai Labs and its administrators from interfering with or reallocating the applicant’s 3,532.30 XRP cash.
