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Centre says can’t put blanket order on sale of banned Chinese app ‘Shien’ products on Amazon
During the hearing in Delhi High Court, the petitioner informed that Amazon was publicising blocked Chinese app Shein’s products as part of its prime day sale, and urged the bench to put an interim stay on sale of such items on all Indian digital marketplaces.
The Centre on Tuesday informed the Delhi High Court that the sale of products of Chinese blocked app ‘Shein’ on other marketplace platforms, including Amazon, has not been covered under law. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) also stated that a blanket order to block the sale of these products cannot be passed by the committee formed under the legal provision, according to news agency PTI.
The bench headed by Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh was hearing a petition seeking to ban the re-entry of Shein products in Indian digital marketplace. The app, along with more than 50 other Chinese ones, were banned in India in 2020.
In its reply submitted to the court via Centre’s standing advocate Anurag Ahluwalia, MeitY said that public access and functionality of Shein was blocked in India last year, but the app’s products being sold on other platforms is a different aspect altogether, the PTI report added.
The Centre said that the Chinese app – which was blocked after being found “detrimental” to India’s security and sovereignty, was temporarily blocked on June 29 last year, and it was permanently blocked for public access in January this year. “Every incident violating the provisions of Section 69A of the IT Act related to already blocked information or content has to be reported separately by following the due process,” PTI reported quoting the government’s statement.
Senior counsel Vivek Raj Singh, appearing for petitioner Ananttika Singh appealed to the court to pass an interim stay on the sale of Shein products on all platforms, saying that otherwise the app – which was prohibited as customer details were being shared to Chinese manufacturers, will continue to do so. He had earlier informed the court that Amazon publicised the sale of Shein products as part of its prime day sale.
The petitioner has sought a direction to Amazon to suspend its partnership with Shein until the ban imposed by the central government is rolled back. Amazon’s advocate, however, told PTI that they are yet to receive a copy of the petition.
The court has directed the petitioner to supply a copy of the PIL to Amazon’s lawyer and granted time to issue a reply. The matter will next be heard on December 1.
This development comes three months after the Delhi High Court in July issued a notice to the Centre on the same petition filed by Singh. However, the bench had at that time refused to put an interim stay on the sale of Shein products on other Indian digital marketplaces.
