Government seeks applications for two Compat member posts

NEW DELHI: The government is looking to appoint two members at the Competition Appellate Tribunal where these posts have been lying vacant for over six months.

Compat, which hears appeals against rulings of fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI), comes under the Corporate Affairs Ministry.

At present, Justice G S Singhvi is the chairman of Compat.

Besides chairman, the tribunal should have two members but the latter two posts have been vacant since August 2014 when Rahul Sarin had retired. Prior to that, another member Parvin Tripathi superannuated in May last year.

The Corporate Affairs Ministry has sought applications from candidates for the two posts at Compat and the applicant is required to have a professional experience of at least 20 years in competition matters, among others.

A member would have a tenure of five years from the date of appointment or till reaching the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier, according to a circular.

Applications can be submitted till April 15. In recent times, many CCI rulings have been challenged by the concerned parties at the tribunal.

Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley, last month, told the Lok Sabha that CCI imposed a penalty of Rs 12,474 crore on 351 companies in nearly four financial years, "out of which 92.48 crore has been realised."

Further, "penalty amounting to Rs 12,292.57 crore has been stayed and penalty of Rs 61.10 crore has been dismissed by the Competition Appellate Tribunal/Courts," he had said.

The penalties were imposed on the entities for indulging in unfair business practices.