Pleas Of Amazon And Flipkart Against CCI Probe Refused To Be Entertained By SC
- BySheetal Sidhu | August 9, 2021
The Supreme Court Monday refused to entertain pleas of ecommerce firms, Amazon and Flipkart, challenging an order permitting the Competition Commission of India to carry out a preliminary investigation into the alleged violation of the competition law. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said that challenging the enquiry is like wanting a notice before the registration of an FIR under the criminal law and asked the ecommerce giants to submit themselves to the probe by the CCI. We expect big organisations like Amazon and Flipkart to offer themselves for the inquiry and you do not want that. You have to submit and enquiry has to be permitted, said the bench which also comprised justices Vineet Saran and Surya Kant.
On being told by senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for Flipkart, that the time to respond to the CCI was expiring on August 9 itself, the bench extended the time by four more weeks which was objected to by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the CCI. Mehta said that a week should be given to these firms as in COVID-19 times, people mostly shop online through these companies. The Karnataka High Court had on July 23 junked the plea of Amazon-Flipkart against the CCI probe for alleged violations of the competition law. The high court had said that the ecommerce firms had no need to shy away from an inquiry if they were not involved in violations.Challenging the order, the two ecommerce giants had approached the Karnataka High Court but a single-judge bench of Justice P S Dinesh Kumar had dismissed it saying that it would be unwise to prejudge the issues raised by the petitioners in these writ petitions at this stage and scuttle the investigation.
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