Orissa HC quashes case against RIL, Ambani in ₹501 phone row; pulls up litigant, lower court

Bhubaneswar: Pulling up a litigant for abusing the criminal justice system, Orissa high court has quashed a criminal complaint against Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and its chairman Mukesh Ambani over a faulty mobile handset, imposed a fine of ₹1,000 on the complainant and criticised a lower court for issuing summons without adequate judicial scrutiny.

Justice S K Panigrahi also noted the incongruity in the lower court’s move seeking to summon the RIL chairman as an accused over a defective mobile handset worth ₹501, sold by a dealer in Rourkela more than two decades back. The HC observed that accepting such an approach would mean “a passenger could summon the railway minister for a delayed train”.