RAIPUR: CHHATTISGARH High Court on Wednesday rejected a petition that sought to dismiss a case registered against employees of e-commerce store ‘Flipkart’ and the courier company for selling a “lethal knife” that was used to commit a murder and loot a petrol pump in July.
A division bench of the high court observed that online delivery of the prohibited items too comes under the purview of criminal offence.
The Raipur police had registered a case against Flipkart on July 19. The case was then registered against a courier agency ‘Elastic Run’ associated with Flipkart to deliver their products. The petitioners, who delivered the parcel and the owner of the courier agency, approached the court citing that they were innocent, as their role was meant only to provide the services under a contract, deliver packed boxes that cannot be tampered with and, therefore, sought the case registered against them be quashed.
The counsel for the petitioners further pleaded that Section 79 of the IT Act, 2000, provides a ‘safeguard’ to intermediaries—such as social media platforms and e-commerce sites—shielding them from liability for third-party content hosted on their platforms.
However, the advocate general on behalf of the government countered that neither anyone can sell or buy prohibited items nor can they be delivered without a license.
After hearing the arguments, the court expressed concern that the nature of criminal offence for online delivery of the prohibited products is similar to that of its manufacture or sale. The petition was dismissed by the court. The safeguard behind Section 79 of the IT Act is conditional since the immunity given can be withdrawn if there remains unlawful content and the intermediary gets the knowledge but fails to remove it.
The Raipur police arrested manager and employees of Flipkart and the courier company under the BNS section 125-B (endangering human life or personal safety).