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Competition
Act – “Still in Incubator”
Mumbai, December 07, 2006
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“Competition Act 2002 which is need of the time to
regulate the business practices detrimental to
healthy competition, though has come out of the
womb, is still lying in the incubator”, said Mr.
H.D. Pithawalla, an eminent Advocate, Supreme
Court of India, while speaking at a public lecture
at World Trade Centre, jointly organised by CUTS
Institute for Regulation & Competition, Institute
of Company Secretaries of India – Centre for
Corporate Training & Research and World Trade
Centre, Mumbai.
The
public lecture entitled ‘Competition Policy and
Law in a Liberalising Economy’ aimed at generating
public awareness on various issues relating to
Competition Policy and Law. Mr. Pithawalla while
briefing about the evolution of competition law in
India, expressed his disappointment with the
current state of affairs. In spite of the fact
that healthy competition benefits not only
consumers but also business and government,
competition regime in the country is not
institutionalised. Competition Act to come into
force needs political will which is largely
absent.
Though
Mr. Pithawalla held exclusion of unfair trade
practices from the jurisdiction of Competition Act
and voluntary (not mandatory by law) registration
of combinations viz., mergers and acquisitions as
two major shortcomings of the Act, he emphasised
that enforcement of the Act will prove to be
extremely useful in the current scenario.
Going
back to old days when telephone was considered a
luxury requiring some 8-10 years of waiting period
for its installation, affordability of a mobile
phone by financially weaker section of the society
in India today, is one remarkable example of how
competition has far-reaching positive effects on
consumers. The onus lies on the government to
ensure an appropriate regulatory regime which can
strike balance between the fundamental right of
the citizens to carry on business or trade and
rights and privileges of the consumer.
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