“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.