Govt soothes ruffled judiciary by offering it a place in panel above Competition Commission

The year-long turf war between the executive and judiciary over who can head the newly set up Competition Commission of India (CCI) has led ...

The year-long turf war between the executive and judiciary over who can head the newly set up Competition Commission of India (CCI) has led to a compromise in which both sides.

The Government today told the Supreme Court it would reserve the post of CCI’s chairman for bureaucrats and experts. And in an obvious bid to placate the judiciary, the Government that it would create an appellate tribunal over the CCI and the proposed body would be headed by a sitting or retired Supreme Court judge or a High Court Chief Justice.

This follows vehement objections raised last year by the then Chief Justice of India, Justice V N Khare, to the provision in the CCI Act 2002 which said that the chairman could be a serving or retired high court judge or somebody who has ‘‘special knowledge of and professional experience of not less than 15 years’’ in any market-related subject such as international trade, business, commerce, finance, law, industry and administration.

On a PIL challenging the appointment of Commerce Secretary Dipak Chatterjee as the first chairman of CCI, Justice Khare had then observed: ‘‘The Government at this rate may even replace the Supreme Court judges with bureaucrats.’’

On the request of the then Attorney General Soli Sorabjee, the apex court had given time to the NDA Government to reconsider the Act and revert with proposals that would address the bench’s concerns. Accordingly, the UPA Government today filed an affidavit proposing the creation of the tribunal headed by a judicial member to deal with appeals against the orders of the CCI.

The tribunal would have two more members who would have ‘‘expertise in competition and related matters.’’

In another major concession to the judiciary, the affidavit said that all the members of the appellate tribunal as well as CCI would be selected by committees headed either by the CJ of India or his nominee. For these concessions, what the Government wants in return is that judges should agree to keep off the post of CCI head.

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The Government proposed that if at all a judge was included in the six-member CCI, it would be on the strength of his expertise in the field and not because of his judicial background per se.

The bench headed by Chief Justice of India R C Lahoti posted the matter for final hearing on November 2.

Besides dealing with the turf battle, the affidavit indicated that the Government was ready to rectify two controversial provisions of the CCI Act. It said that the CCI’s orders would be executed not by the high court but by a subordinate civil court. Secondly, the CCI would be divested of the power to detain a person in civil prison in the event of contravention of the Act.