The Supreme Court of India said on Thursday that the Competition Act would apply to Coal India Limited, which it was repeatedly opposing. To decide this issue on the basis of merit, the matter has been sent back to the Competition Commission of India ie CCI. CCI imposed a penalty of Rs 1,773.05 crore on Coal India for imposing unfair/discriminatory terms in fuel supply agreements with power producers for supply of non-cooking coal. However, after the intervention of the Competition Appellate Tribunal, the fine was reduced to Rs 591 crore.
The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the Competition Act, 2002 would apply to Coal India Limited, a public sector company. A bench of Justices KM Joseph, BV Nagaratna and Ahsanuddin Amanullah gave this decision. The court rejected Coal India's argument that the Competition Act does not apply to them because of the Coal Mines Act.
The judgment came after hearing a batch of appeals, the most prominent of which was a petition by Coal India challenging the December 2016 decision of the former Competition Appellate Tribunal. In 2014, the Competition Appellate Tribunal had dismissed Coal India's challenge against which the CCI had given its verdict. The CCI had found Coal India guilty of abusing its dominance under the rules. After which the CCI had directed Coal India to 'stop such anti-competitive conduct'.
Initially, CCI imposed a penalty of Rs 1733.05 crore on Coal India, which was reduced to Rs 591.01 crore. The compaction watchdog had acted on information filed by Sai Wardha, a Maharashtra-based coal-fired thermal power generation company.
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