The Hindu Business Line : Competition Act changes may dilute panel's powers

THE logjam on provisions of the Competition Law may end soon. The Government has decided to suitably amend the Competition Act to enable smooth implementation of the Act.

Among the provisions likely to be amended include the one on execution of the awards given by the Competition Commission of India by High Courts or Principal Civil Court provided in Section 39 of the Act.

This would also mean that the recovery orders given by the Commission would not be treated as a decree of a High Court, experts point out.

According to the Section, "Every order passed by the Commission under this Act shall be enforced by the Commission in the same manner as if it were a decree or order made by a High Court or the Principal Civil Court in a suit pending therein and it shall be lawful for the Commission to send, in the event of its inability to execute it, such order to the High Court or the Principal Civil Court as the case may be, within local limits of whose jurisdiction...''

In fact, the apex court when hearing the petition challenging the appointment of a bureaucrat to head the Commission in November last year had said, "We expect that it will be scrapped before we take up further hearing of the petition challenging the appointment of a bureaucrat to head the Commission."

Regarding the issue of who is going to head the Commission, the Ministry of Company Affairs is likely to leave the decision to the Union Cabinet.

Even as the Law Ministry is understood to hold a view that a person of judicial background should head the Competition Commission, the Company Affairs Ministry is still open to the option of setting up an Appellate Authority that could be headed by a judge, official sources said.

Further, the provision dealing with powers to punish for non-compliance of the Commission's orders is also being amended.

Currently, the Act provides the Commission with such powers.

However, now the powers are likely to be left with the courts. The Cabinet is likely to take up the amendments on Wednesday.

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