Liability of e-commerce companies as intermediaries in India

The growth of e-commerce in India brought the focus on the issue of liability of intermediaries in India. The matter first arose in the case of Avnish Bajaj v State (2005) 3 CompLJ 364 Del, popularly referred to as the ‘Bazee.com case’. In this case, Mr Avnish Bajaj, the CEO of Bazee.com (now ebay.in) was arrested after an obscene media clip was posted by a user for sale on the website. While the Delhi High Court quashed the criminal proceedings against Mr Bajaj on procedural grounds, it held that the website hosting the video can be held liable under the Indian Penal Code 1860 and the Information Technology Act 2000 (IT Act).