Justice Narasimha Recuses From Hearing Meru Cabs Appeal As He Had Appeared For Uber

Supreme Court judge Justice PS Narasimha on Friday recused from hearing an appeal filed by Meru Cabs citing his appearance for Uber India earlier in another case as a lawyer.

A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and Justice Narasimha was considering an appeal filed by Meru Cab challenging the order of the Competition Commission of India which dismissed its complaint alleging abuse of dominant position by Uber India.

When the matter was taken, Senior Advocate P Chidambaram, appearing for Meru Cabs, submitted that Justice Narasimha had appeared for Uber before. He added that he has no objection to the bench hearing the matter but said that it was his duty to point out this fact.

Justice Narasimha thanked Chidambaram for bringing this aspect to his notice. 

"I am sorry to mention this before the Court", Chidambaram said.

"No, please. I thank you for informing me", Justice Narasimha replied.

Justice Rao said that had the Advocate on Record circulated a letter stating this fact, the bench would not have spent its time studying the files yesterday.

"We spent about an hour on this", Justice Rao said.

The bench agreed to list the matter on May 9 before a bench in which Justice Narasimha is not a member.

It was in 2015 that Meru filed approached the Competition Commission of India. On July 14, 2021, the CCI declined to intervene observing "the facts and evidence on record do not establish the dominance of Uber". The CCI said that it does not find merit in the argument of Meru that incentives and rating mechanism adopted by Uber for its driving partners had any Appreciable Adverse Effect on Competition (AAEC) in the market.

On January 7, 2022, the National Company Appellate Tribunal approved the CCI's order by dismissing Meru's appeal against it.

Case Title : Meru Travels Solutions Pvt Ltd versus Competition Commission of India | Civil Appeal No.2843-2844/2022

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