Justice Mukta Gupta asked the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) to prepare a fresh representation, as the petition did not show how they were being impacted by the government's FDI policy, and to send it to the Centre within a week.
The court observed that while framing a policy the executive is required to take views of all the stakeholders and therefore, "it would be appropriate" that CAIT is also afforded an opportunity to be heard.
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It passed the order while disposing of the plea of CAIT which has alleged that the current policy of 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail was "creating an uneven playing field by giving a source of abundant resources and deep finance to large retailers and multi-national corporations".
The court's decision came after the Centre said the plea can be treated as a representation as was done in the case of Retailers Association of India (RAI) which has sought parity with e-commerce sites.
The high court on May 20 had asked the Centre to consider as a representation RAI's plea and to take a decision within four months.
CAIT has also opposed the 100 per cent FDI in e-commerce, claiming that though the investment is allowed in business to business model, e-portals are circumventing regulations and engaging in business to customer model by projecting themselves as a "marketplace".
CAIT has contended that the current policy would allow "big players" to monopolise and dominate the market.