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OLX India B.V. vs. State of Haryana & Ors.

Criminal Appeal · 2022 INSC 277Decided 8 Mar 2022
Criminal Appeal No. 378 of 2022

Background

The Punjab and Haryana High Court, while hearing a petition seeking police action against alleged online fraud on OLX's platform, made tentative adverse observations against the OLX Group and, at an interim stage, directed that all advertisements on OLX be taken down and re-listed only after sellers attached ID proofs, verified mobile numbers, and (in some districts) a local certificate vouching for the seller's character. OLX was added as a respondent and challenged these interim directions before the Supreme Court, arguing it is merely an internet intermediary connecting buyers and sellers and cannot guarantee the genuineness of listings. The Supreme Court had earlier stayed the directions against OLX pending this appeal.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court had no occasion to issue such sweeping interim directions, especially without first hearing OLX. Since the underlying petition was still pending before the High Court, the Court left it open to OLX to raise all its substantive defenses (including its status as an intermediary) there, but quashed the specific interim directions requiring ID-verification PDFs and local certificates for every listing. The appeal was allowed only to that limited extent.

Lesson Learnt

Courts must hear an affected party before imposing operational directions on it, and an intermediary platform cannot be saddled with onerous verification burdens through an interim order passed without a full hearing.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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