Competition Appellate Tribunal (COMPAT) is the statutory authority for dealing with the appeals issued and directed against the cases passed by the Competition Commission of India. As per the recent notice of notification no.1696(E) in 2017, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLAT) took over the appellate function under the Competition Commission. The COMPAT ceased to exist from 26 May 2017. This amendment was made under the provisions of Part XIV OF Chapter VI of the Finance Act, 2017. Previously, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) dealt only with the appeals arising from the National Company law Tribunal (NCLT) and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI). Now, all the matters pending in the COMPAT will be heard fresh in NCLAT. This will again burden the parties as well as the litigators and would increase the cost of the proceedings. There will be a lot of confusion regarding the manner in which the transferred cases will be conducted. Amendments were made to Sections 2(ba) and 53A of the Competition Act and Section 410 of the Companies Act to reflect the new structure and responsibilities of NCLAT. The NCLAT is already loaded with appeals from NCLT and IBBI; it will further burden the appellate authority by transferring the COMPAT case. To control this, the Central Government could appoint more members to the appellate authority.
AUTHOR:
Saraswathy Thogainathan, 5th year BBA. LL.B (Hons.), Saveetha School of Law, Chennai