Supreme Court refuses to grant special treatment to CCI in Amazon, Flipkart probe, refuses to transfer petition

The Supreme Court has clarified to the Competition Commission of India that it “will not get special treatment” as it refused to transfer writ petitions filed in various high courts challenging its antitrust probe against e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart.

The SC recommended that as per the Karnataka High Court rules, all petitions should be consolidated by a single judge instead of being referred to the SC.

A bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka reportedly said, “Just because certain litigants are to be given special treatment and bypass the rules, we cannot place them directly before a division bench.” living method.

Justice Oka also said no one should receive special treatment for going a step beyond the proceedings.

CCI’s request

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has requested the SC to transfer the complaints filed by various sellers of Amazon and Flipkart before the SC or Telangana High Court in Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Madras, Allahabad and Telangana High Courts. 24 writ petitions were consolidated. Delhi High Court. According to the CCI, hearing multiple cases in multiple high courts will result in conflicting judgments.

Justice Oka said: “We are going to accept the very dangerous argument that in one High Court, as per the rules, the case is heard by a single judge, just because in some other High Court, the case is heard by a Division Bench, it should be heard by that High Court ”

According to the SC, in several similar cases in the past, it has referred such cases to the principal high court and heard them as per the rules. The final order passed by a single judge can be appealed to the Divisional Judge or SC. However, it would be incorrect to contact the SC directly for this situation.

Attorney General (AG) R Venkataramani appeared on behalf of the antitrust agency. According to Venkataramani, the CCI filed this plea as several high courts had issued orders staying antitrust investigations. Therefore, the CCI was unable to complete the investigation.