Why was DLF allowed to jump the queue for early hearing, asks SC
1 min read . Updated: 17 Mar 2015, 09:58 PM IST
PremiumThe court has directed the case to be transferred to the bottom of the regular list, till it receives the explanation about this aberration
New Delhi: Real estate company DLF Ltd’s wait for relief from the Supreme Court may get longer as the apex court on Tuesday said that it will not hear DLF’s challenge to the Competition Appellate Tribunal (Compat) judgment upholding a ₹ 630 crore penalty imposed on the company till it receives a report from the Supreme Court’s registry about how DLF’s case jumped the queue and got an early listing before the apex court.
The court has directed the case to be transferred to the bottom of the regular list, till it receives the explanation about this aberration. The apex court’s registry is responsible for preparing the daily cause lists, which list all the cases that will be taken up by the different benches in a given day.
“When people are rotting in jail for years, you don’t expect us to take up this 2014 matter," a furious justice Ranjan Gogoi said to DLF’s lawyer C.A. Sundaram emphasizing that the bench needed to know how the registry was working.
DLF is challenging the Compat’s order which upheld the penalty imposed on it by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for allegedly abusing its dominant position by imposing “unfair and discriminatory" terms on its buyers through apartment buyers’ agreements of three DLF developments in Gurgaon—DLF Park Place, Magnolias and the Belaire.
DLF has challenged the jurisdiction of the CCI to entertain such a case in the first place claiming that this was a matter to be dealt by consumer fora.
An email query sent to DLF remained unanswered.
Madhurima Nandy in Bangalore contributed to this story.
