New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday transferred petitions of Amazon and Flipkart, against an order passed by the Competition Commission of India for a probe into the e-commerce giants for alleged malpractices, to the Karnataka High Court.
The matter came up before a bench comprising justices Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan. Attorney General R Venkataramani contended before the bench that, after filing of the present petition by fair trade regulator the Competition Commission of India (CCI), five pleas had been filed in different high courts.
Earlier, the apex court had asked the AG to take instructions from the CCI for transferring over two dozen petitions to the Karnataka high court’s single judge bench.
On Monday, during the hearing, the bench said if pleadings in some of the transferred petitions were not completed, then the judge seized of the matter can grant reasonable time to complete it. The bench said it will be appropriate if all the petitions are transferred for hearing to the High Court of Karnataka. "If similar petitions are hereafter instituted in any other high court, the same shall be also covered by this order," the bench said.
Previously, the apex court had issued a notice on the plea filed by the CCI, which sought the transfer of the petitions filed by the e-commerce giants from the high courts to the top court or Delhi High Court.
The CCI, in its plea, sought directions to transfer the cases pending before the high courts of Allahabad, Madras, Telangana, Punjab and Haryana, Delhi, and Karnataka.
The CCI had ordered the probe into Flipkart and Amazon following allegations of malpractices, including deep discounting and tie-ups with preferred sellers on their platforms. The order was passed after a complaint by the Delhi Vyapar Mahasang, whose members comprise many traders of smartphones and related accessories.
