RS passes Competition Amendment Bill

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha or the upper house of the Parliament on Wednesday passed the Competition Amendment Bill. After getting the assent of the President Pratibha Patil all pending cases with the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission or MRTPC will be transferred to the Competition Appellate Tribunal (CAT).

According to the Competition Act, which was passed in 2007, the pending cases of MRTPC were to be heard by MRTPC itself for two year and no fresh cases were to be taken by MRTPC.

”This means the end of the road for MRTPC which was suffering because of paucity of manpower,” said minister for corporate affairs Salman Khurshid. There are about 2,500 pending MRTPC cases.

Lok Sabha or the lower house passed the Bill last week.

Expressing their reservation during the discussion on the amendment in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley insisted that transferring of the MRTPC cases would merely create job for the CAT.

Patil, in October issued an ordinance transferring cases from MRTPC to CAT. However, there was confusion over unfair trade practice disputes and compensation claims, which the ordinance did not specify, will go to CAT or the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission, or National Commission, as per the Competition Act.