Courts and tribunals in New Delhi bustled in the first half of 2023 with important rulings and hearings. In these six months, the courts pronounced important and landmark judgments on laws pertaining to competition, the insolvency code and the constitution.
On the very first working day of 2023, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the 2016 demonetisation scheme. The initial hearings of Google’s appeal against the Competition Commission of India’s order penalising it for abusing its dominant position in the Android ecosystem started in January.
The momentum in hearings and deciding important cases continued until the courts closed for the summer vacation in June. Moneycontrol lists six important developments in the Delhi courts over the past six months.
January – The demonetisation judgment
On January 2, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court upheld the Union Government’s November 2016 decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.
While four judges on the bench led by Justice Abdul Nazeer delivered the majority opinion, Justice BV Nagarathna held it unlawful.
The court noted in its judgement that to adjudicate the illegality of the demonetisation notification, it would have to examine whether its objectives were in nexus with the decision or not.
“If the notification had a nexus with the objectives to be achieved, then, merely because some citizens have suffered through hardships would not be a ground to hold the notification to be bad in law,” it observed.
February – SpiceJet ordered to pay Rs 270 crore to Kalanithi Maran
In the long-drawn share dispute between SpiceJet's Ajay Singh and the airline's former promoter Kalanithi Maran, the Supreme Court directed the airline on February 13 to invoke a bank guarantee of Rs 270 crore to pay Kalanithi Maran towards dues from the arbitral award of Rs 572 crore.
The court further directed SpiceJet to pay Rs 75 crore towards claims of Rs 362 crore in interest dues.
On May 29, after Maran alleged the airline had not paid the Rs 75 crore as directed, the Supreme Court ordered SpiceJet to pay the entire interest amount despite the airline saying it had moved a petition seeking an extension of the three-month period.
March – NCLAT upholds Rs 1,338 crore anti-trust fine against Google
In October 2022, the CCI imposed a penalty of Rs 1,338 crore on tech giant Google for abusing its dominant position in the Android ecosystem. The CCI also asked Google to cease and desist from anti-competitive behaviour.
Google appealed against this order in National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), asking for it to be set aside. On March 29, the NCLAT partially upheld the CCI’s abuse-of-Android-dominance order against Google and the penalty of Rs 1,338 crore.
The tribunal said the CCI's order does not suffer from any confirmation bias. Furthermore, the NCLAT held that Google asking original equipment manufacturers to pre-install the entire Google Suite of 11 applications amounted to the imposition of unfair conditions.
Google appealed against the NCLAT order in the Supreme Court. It is expected to be heard by the apex court in July.
April – Delhi High Court asks CCI to hear plea by Indian startups
On April 24, Justice Tushar Rao Gedela of the Delhi High Court asked the CCI to hear applications moved by a group of Indian startups against Google’s new in-app user choice billing policy.
The Alliance of Digital India Foundation, a group of Indian startups, moved the court against the competition regulator and the search engine giant. It wanted the CCI to urgently investigate Google's user choice billing system because it violated the anti-trust watchdog’s order of October 25, 2022, asking Google to not restrict app developers from using any third-party billing or payment processing service to buy apps or for in-app billings on Google Play
The petitioners wanted the CCI to invoke the 'doctrine of necessity' (extraordinary actions by administrative authority) to investigate Google's alleged violation of the regulator's guidelines and pass an order as the CCI does not have the quorum to adjudicate anti-trust cases.
The CCI is considering the case and a decision on the applications of the startups is expected in July.
May – Go First admitted to insolvency
On May 10, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted Go First to insolvency, as a result of which the airline went into moratorium. The airline had voluntarily moved the tribunal to be admitted to insolvency.
The airline’s lessors appealed against the NCLT order in the NCLAT, seeking possession of their aircraft as they had terminated their leases before the moratorium could kick in. However, the appellate tribunal upheld Go First’s insolvency on May 22 and directed the lessors to file applications in the NCLT to clarify the status of their aircraft.
The applications by aircraft lessors are pending in the NCLT, which is likely to hear them in July.
June – CCI junks abuse of dominance plea against LG Electronics
In its first anti-trust order in seven months, the CCI dismissed a plea by a Navi Mumbai-based company accusing South Korea’s LG Electronics of abusing its dominant position in air-conditioning technologies.
Perfect Infraengineers Ltd., which repairs and sells air-conditioners, alleged that it was denied permission by LG Electronics to integrate its hybrid thermal solar panels with LG’s variable refrigeration flow (VRF) air-conditioners on the premises of Envirocare Ltd. and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.
In its order on June 20, the CCI said LG Electronics was not a dominant player in these segments as Daikin has been the market leader since 2020. As it was not a dominant player, the anti-trust tribunal concluded that it could not have abused its dominance.
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