CCI Seeks Vacation Of Bombay High Court Order Restraining Coercive Action Against Debt Trustee Units Of IDBI, Axis & SBICap For Alleged Cartelization

On Thursday, a division bench of Justice G. S. Patel and Justice S. G. Dige placed the CCI’s interim applications for final disposal on February 17, 2023 observing that the disposal of CCI’s interim applications will result in disposal of the main writ petitions as well.

Last year, the trustee units of IDBI, Axis, and SBI along with Trustees Association of India had approached the court in individual writ petitions challenging the CCI’s investigation into them on a complaint by Muthoot Finance Limited. The CCI had formed a prima facie view that there is a form of cartelization between debenture trustees to fix prices or rates of fees to the detriment of the debenture/security issuers.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was also investigating the issue.

The petitioners had argued that since SEBI is investigating the issue, the CCI should hold its action in abeyance.

The court in its April 2022 orders, had referred to CCI v. Bharti Airtel Limited and said that there was a possibility of conflicting orders in the present case if parallel investigations by both CCI and SEBI into practically the same complaint are continued.

Observing that SEBI is the sectoral regulator, the court had said that it should be given a chance to arrive at its prima facie view of the matter.

Therefore, the court had requested the CCI and the Director General not to take any coercive action or adjudicate further into the complaint until SEBI concludes its enquiry.

The CCI, in November 2022, filed interim applications in each writ petition to continue its investigation.

During the hearing today, the court noted that SEBI has completed the investigation and a report has been filed.

Case no. – Writ Petition No. 3781 3791, 3842, 3847 of 2022

Case Title – Trustees Association of India v. Competition Commission of India & Ors with connected matters