Android case: Supreme Court refuses to modify January 19 order on Google

Says firm can raise its grievances during hearing of its appeal before NCLAT

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to modify the January 19 order on Google LLC and said the company can raise its grievances during the hearing of its appeal before the NCLAT.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala said at most the bench can add "without prejudice" in the January 19 order and nothing more.

The apex court on January 19 did not grant interim relief to Google against the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) order upholding the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI's) penalty of Rs 1,337.76 crore imposed on the tech giant for unfair and anti-competitive practices related to Android devices.

Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the US tech giant on Friday, said some portion of the January 19 order needs to be deleted.

The bench said the order was dictated in the open court and so there's nothing to change. "Sorry, it can't be done. We will not do it. You can raise all these grievances during the hearing of the appeals,” the bench told Singh.

The counsel appearing for the CCI said the appeal of Google LLC is listed for hearing next week before the NCLAT and they can raise these issues before the tribunal.

The CCI on October 20, 2022, penalised the tech giant and asked it to pay Rs 1,337.76 crore for practices related to Android devices. Google was earlier given three months to comply with the CCI’s directive and its deadline was January 19. The tech giant then moved the NCLAT on December 22, 2022, and on January 4, the appellate tribunal asked google to pay 10 per cent of Rs 1,337.76 in three weeks and posted the matter for hearing on April 3. Seeking relief, Google then knocked on the doors of the apex court.

After the top court refused interim relief to Google on January 19, the matter was sent back to NCLAT for the final order.