The India division of the popular online auction portal, Ebay (then called Baazee.com) has been in the soup for its chief Avinash Bajaj’s alleged involvement in selling a 2.37-minute obscene video showing uncompromising images of a couple of students from Delhi. Now, the case has taken a new turn with the Supreme Court halting the criminal trial.

Earlier, the Delhi high court had allowed Bajaj’s prosecution under section 85 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. He has been charged for the violation of section 67 of the law, which concerns publishing obscene information in electronic form.

 Delhi Police initiated the matter by filing a criminal case against Bajaj and Baazee.com for putting up such obscene stuff for sale. Bajaj challenged the high court ruling with his petition, saying "mere" listing of a product for sale cannot be a crime under the IT Act, but was finally halted by a bench headed by Justice Altmas Kabir. In his petition, Bajaj has cited clauses in the IT Act, saying that it doesn't define the term "obscenity", making the charges meaningless.

The Bench has sought contentions from the Delhi government and the Delhi police on Bajaj's petition. X