Supreme Court rejects CCI appeal to probe Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Idea

The competition watchdog had appealed against an earlier Bombay High Court order which quashed its probe into these telecom companies

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a September 2017 order of the Bombay High Court, quashing Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) probe into allegations of cartelisation by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular. Vodafone India and Idea Cellular have since merged to form Vodafone Idea.

The CCI had in January moved the top court after the Bombay high court had quashed the investigation ordered by the fair trade regulator into charges of cartelisation against the three companies. The probe against the firms was ordered by the CCI in April 2017, after the then entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm had complained that