The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to respond to a petition that claims PayPal is operating in India illegally, that is, without the RBI's authorisation, the Economic Times reported. The court issued notices to the RBI, ED and Paypal Payments Pvt Ltd, asking for their stand on the petition before the next hearing on September 18. A few websites incorrectly reported that the court had asked PayPal to halt its operations in India immediately. MediaNama reached out to PayPal but a spokesperson said that the company had no comment on the development. The petitioner, Abhijit Mishra, alleged that PayPal was operating in India in contravention of Section 4(1) of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, as the company did not figure in the list of authorised payment system operators that the RBI had published on May 27, 2019, the report said. Section 4(1) of the Act says that that no entity other than the RBI can commence or operate a payments system without authorisation from the central bank. Despite this, Mishra alleged, the company's services are used by various online travel, clothing and food websites and apps. He also alleged that PayPal was operating as a foreign exchange dealer in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and "has unmonitored and unauthorised access to the personal information such as Aadhaar, PAN, etc of the public". He asked the the court to order PayPal to halt its operations in India and to direct…
