Amazon India has filed a plea before the Bombay High Court seeking quashing of a criminal complaint and issuance of summons to its Vice President Amit Agarwal by a Maharashtra court.
This month, the Metropolitan Magistrate court at Ulhasnagar in Thane district of Maharashtra had summoned Agarwal in a criminal complaint filed by a Mumbai lawyer, Amritpal Singh Khalsa, over non-receipt of a product ordered from the e-commerce website.
Amazon said in the plea that the complaint did not make out the element of cheating as alleged. The plea said that the complaint also failed to make out any alleged fraudulent act or dishonest intention on the part of the company.
The petition pointed out that Agarwal was not involved in the day-to-day activities of the e-commerce marketplace and there was no specific allegation against him necessitating summons to be issued to him.
The plea also stated that the Magistrate had failed to consider that Amazon is not the seller or manufacturer of the product but is merely an online marketplace, thereby entitling it to protection under Section 79 of Information Technology, 2021 (as an intermediary), the petition stated.
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Amazon also put forth that Khalsa had failed to comply with the provisions for filing complaints as stated in the Code of Criminal Procedure. Khalsa merely forwarded the complaint to the superiors in the Ulhasnagar Police Station, thus vitiating the complaint and the investigation carried out under Section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was conducted in a “casual manner”, it was submitted.
The plea contended that the police merely recorded a statement of the complainant and there were no responses to the notices issued, hence the final report that came to be submitted did not make out a cognizable offence.
The Bombay High Court will hear the plea on September 8.
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Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/amazon-india-moves-bombay-hc-against-summons-over-non-receipt-of-product-1847276-2021-08-30
