Sound body of jurisprudence will help CCI, says Chawla

Stakeholders' tendency to take issues related to competition law off the main channel by moving courts and other fora results in delaying the whole process of its implementation, CCI Chairman Ashok Chawla said today. He also emphasised that a sound body of jurisprudence would be helpful for a young regulator like Competition Commission of India (CCI). "There is a tendency among many stakeholders to try and take the process off the main channel which is provided in the statute and take it to jurisdictions such as High Courts and so on, which somehow is then required to take cognizance of some particular detail involved there but not of the whole of the larger picture. Then the process gets delayed...," Chawla said here. His comments came against the backdrop of some entities moving courts in matters involving competition law and allegedly contesting the jurisdiction of CCI in a particular issue. Under the Competition Act, the rulings of CCI can be appealed before the Competition Appellate Tribunal.

"I do hope we get the guidance that is very important for a young body like us, it is then... that (the world) will take greater note if our pronouncements get legally tested if there is a sound body of jurisprudence is able to emerge at the end of the day. Sooner rather than later it would be helpful to us," Chawla said here.

He was speaking at a seminar on 'Competition Law and Compliance - A Growth Enabler' organised by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI). "Ultimately there are two levels provided in the statute, testing whatever we do, if things moved according to that.. which I hope they had, we would have had in six years or another one or two years, maximum ten years reasonable body of jurisprudence to guide all of us in this simple yet complicated area (of competition law)," Chawla noted.

According to him, competition law is partly complex because it has an intersection of law and economics. "You have to marry the two and see how things are working and how to interpret legally. It is also about behaviour, except those related to mergers... essentially it is judging, apprising economic behaviour," he added. CCI members M S Sahoo and U C Nahta were also present.