With the arrest of chairman and chief executive officer of Amway India Enterprises William S Pinckney and two of the directors, an average person naturally thinks why Amway is not taking legal recourse to resist the criminal cases against the company and its executives.
In fact, Amway India has no legal recourse left for it as it has exhausted all its chances way back in 2006.
After the Criminal Investigation Department’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) headed by the then superintendent of police V C Sajjanar filed a criminal case against the Amway India, the company reacted immediately and filed a writ petition in the Andhra Pradesh High Court appealing the court to declare its business model as legal. It boasted that it has been following the same business model in about 60 countries.
However, the Andhra Pradesh High Court thoroughly dissected the business model of Amway India and stated to the effect that its business model is nothing but a camouflaged money circulation scheme with the company making easy and quick money.
In a nut shell, the AP High Court held that the business model of the company attracted the provisions of Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978. The Amway India then preferred to file a special leave petition in the Supreme Court. After hearing the legal luminaries like Soli Sorabji on behalf of the Amway India, the Supreme Court upheld that judgement of the AP High Court and instructed the CID of AP to complete the investigation and file the charge sheet in six months. Now, the criminal case is pending trial in the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Nampally, Hyderabad.
In this backdrop, there is hardly any legal course left for Amway India when a young IPS officer Jayanth Jayanathan proceeded against the multinational company and filed a criminal case against it. However, the Amway India encouraged its IBOs to take out a procession to the chief minister’s residence to appeal that they lost their livelihood. The things seemed subsided for a while.
However, once the law is set in motion, it would take its own course to take the case to its logical end.
That is exactly what is happening now. The criminal case was filed and the accused has to be arrested to be produced in the court of law. Then the charge sheet would be filed and the trial to be commenced. The accused secured the bail but has to attend the trial as in the case of Nampally court where they are regularly attending the trial for the last several years.
The judiciary has to decide whether people are losing livelihood or being robbed.