The Supreme Court on Monday transferred to Karnataka High Court a batch of petitions filed by Amazon and Flipkart challenging a Competition Commission of India (CCI) order for a probe into the e-commerce giants for alleged malpractices.

A bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan passed the direction while dealing with an application moved by the CCI for the transfer of over 24 petitions filed by Amazon, Flipkart and its various vendors.

The CCI, represented by attorney-general R. Venkataramani, wanted the petitions to be transferred either to the Supreme Court or Delhi High Court to avoid conflicting orders being passed by various other high courts on the issue.

The petitions had been filed in the high courts of Delhi, Allahabad, Punjab and Haryana, Madrasand Karnataka.

However, the apex court bench decided to transfer the matter to a single- judge bench of Karnataka High Court where the first petition was filed.

“It will be appropriate if all the petitions which are the subject matter of the present transfer petition are transferred for hearing to the single bench of High Court of Karnataka.... If similar petitions are hereafter instituted in any other high court, the same shall also be considered as part of this order,” Justice Oka said.

The CCI had in January 2021 ordered the probe into Flipkart and Amazon following allegations of malpractices, including deep discounting and tie-ups with preferred sellers on their platforms.

The probe order came after a complaint by the Delhi Vyapar Mahasang, whose members comprise many traders of smartphones and related accessories.

In August 2021, an apex court bench led by then Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana had dismissed a special leave petition filed by Amazon and Flipkart against a June 23 Karnataka High Court order asking them to face the probe.

“We expect big organisations like Amazon and Flipkart to voluntarily go for inquiry and you don’t want even that? We will ensure you do that,” Justice Ramana, sitting in a bench that also had Justices Vineet Saran and Surya Kant, had observed.