JUDGMENT :

Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya, J

1. The petitioner no. 1, Hoichoi Technologies Private Limited, with its Director, petitioner no. 2, have preferred the instant writ petition. The petitioner no. 1-Company hosts Bengali Movies, Web Series, TV shows and films through its mobile application and is a subscription-based model which monetizes its contents. Respondent nos. 2 to 6 are loosely referred to as the “Google Group of Companies”. Respondent no. 6, namely Google India Digital services Private Limited (Google India) is an online Payment Aggregator (PA) incorporated under Indian Laws.

2. The petitioners argue that the entire Group of Companies comprised of respondent nos. 2 to 6 provide inter-related services and act as PAs as contemplated in the Guidelines on Regulation of Payment Aggregators and Payment Gateways issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on March 17, 2020 (updated as on November 17, 2020). PAs have been defined under Clause 1.1.1 of the Guideline as entities that facilitate e-commerce sites and merchants to accept various payment instruments from the customers for completion of their obligations without the need for merchants to create a separate payment integrat