The Centre has come up with a fresh order inviting applications for the post of Chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), the country’s competition regulator. This move to scrap the earlier shortlist of candidates and invite applications afresh comes nearly four months after the erstwhile CCI Chairperson Ashok Kumar Gupta demitted office on October 25 last year.

businessline had in January reported that the Centre had decided to start the selection process afresh after scrapping the earlier shortlist of candidates. 

The delay in having a full time Chairperson at CCI has created several problems, including the lack of quorum that has come in the way of the Competition Commission taking a call on complaints such as those made made against tech giant Google for alleged breach of the competition watchdog’s ruling in the Android matter. 

The problem of delay in M&A approvals was recently solved with the CCI invoking doctrine of necessity to clear the M&A cases that were piling up before the commission.

EARLIER CANDIDATES NEED NOT APPLY

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has in its order issued on Thursday stipulated that the candidates who had applied earlier in response to the previous advertisement/vacancy circular dated July 26, 2022 need not apply. Fresh aspirants to the CCI Chairperson post must send in their applications latest by March 09. Interestingly, March 9 is also the last date for submission of applications for filling the three Members posts in CCI.

Currently, CCI has only two members with one of them doubling up as Acting Chairperson. 

It maybe recalled that MCA had in end January this year extended the tenure of CCI Acting Chairperson Sangeeta Verma until the date on which a new Chairperson is appointed or till any further orders.

Verma, who is from the 1981 batch of the Indian Economic Service (IES), joined CCI as a Member on December 24, 2018.

Earlier, Verma was appointed as Acting Chairperson on October 25 last year for a period of three months or till the appointment of a regular Chairperson or till any further orders, whichever is the earliest.

SELECTION PROCESS

Last October, over 50 shortlisted candidates were called for interviews for the post of CCI Chairperson. Over 100 candidates had applied for the top job. 

The selection panel held second round of interactions with the aspirants on November 27.

Now the entire earlier process has been scrapped and a fresh round of interviews are expected to take place after March 9, 2023.

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