Govt gets time to amend Competition Act

The Supreme Court allowed the Centre more time to amend the Competition Commission Act, at the request of Attorney General Soli Sorabjee. The case will now be heard on January 30.

Sorabjee said the government was not in favour of deleting any particular provision in the law, and two ministers were taking a comprehensive look at it, for which more time was needed.

During the last hearing, Chief Justice V N Khare had asked the government to delete the provision (Section 39) in the legislation, which sought to make the high court the executing court for orders passed by the commission.

The court had said such a provision would affect the independence of the judiciary as the commission, which was mostly staffed with bureaucrats under the existing Act, would be above the high court. The court had expressed serious reservations about such a scheme of things.

Sorbajee had sought time then to consider the changes in the law. Today he sought more time to make the necessary changes.

The petitioner, Brahm Dutt, had challenged the appointment of former Commerce Secretary Dipak Chatterjee to the head of the commission. Since then the appointment has been frozen.

The court has objected to the policy of appointing bureaucrats to quasi-judicial bodies.

The judges had observed that if this was allowed, the government would fill all the posts of judges with bureaucrats.

Buying time

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• The government had sought more time as two ministers were taking a comprehensive look at the Act and it was not in favour of deleting any provision in the law
• Chief Justice V N Khare had asked the government to delete a provision, which sought to make the high court the executing court for orders passed by the commission
• The court said such a provision would affect the independence of the judiciary as the Commission was mostly staffed with bureaucrats