HC dismisses PhonePe's injunction plea against BharatPe over exclusivity on suffix 'Pe'

In a major development, famous payment firm PhonePe has withdrawn its injunction plea against BharatPe over the use of the suffix ‘Pe’. This happened after the Delhi High Court dismissed PhonePe’s interim injunction plea in April, the company moved a division bench to seek relief.

What was the court order?

Recent court order by a division bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Navin Chawla said, “After some arguments, learned senior counsel for the appellant (PhonePe) does not wish to press the present appeal. He, however, prays for the expeditious disposal of the suit. Keeping in view of the aforesaid limited prayer, we dispose of the present appeal by directing the learned single judge to expedite the hearing and disposal of the suit. We further direct that none of the parties shall unnecessarily take an adjournment in the proceedings before the learned single judge."

Last month, PhonePe had filed an injunction plea before a division bench of the Delhi High Court after a single judge bench dismissed it. However, it has told the court it doesn’t wish to press the present appeal on injunction but wants an “expeditious disposal of the suit”, as per a court order.

Founder and CEO of BharatPe Ashneer Groover said in a statement, “It would have been a travesty of justice if foreign-owned PhonePe would have been allowed to monopolize [the] Hindi word ‘Pe’,” and that “This was never a case on merit – it was flexing of muscles by Chinese Tencent and American Walmart backed, PhonePe, against homegrown BharatPe.”

The popularity of the app PhonePe saw a major incline from the year 2016 and after which it got acquired by Flipkart. Ever since then there hasn't been any kind of downfall for this app due to the ever-increasing demand for digital payments.