Supreme Court: Competition Act Applicable To Coal India Ltd

The Supreme Court in the case Coal India Limited And Anr v. Competition Commission of India and Anr observed and has held that the Coal India Ltd. would come under the purview of the Competition Act, 2002, despite of being the public sector undertaking.
The bench comprising of Justice KM Joseph and Justice BV Nagarathna was hearing the present matter.
The bench stated while rejecting the contention of the applicant that the Competition Act does not apply to them because of the Coal Mines, the Nationalisation Act. Thus, the Nationalist Act cannot be reconciled with that of the (Competition) Act.
The court in the case observed and has remanded the matter back to the Competition Commission of India in order to decide the said issue on merits. The bench also clarified that the IAs seeking interim relief as well as the contempt petitions would be listed in the month of July.
Further, the court stated that the transferred case shall be sent back so that they may be dealt with on their own merits. The court disposed of the transferred case and the appeal was equally posted for being dealt with on its own merits. Therefore, the interlocutory applications seeking interim relief in the pending appeals shall be listed in the second week of July 2023 and the contempt petition shall be listed in the month of July, 2023.
In the present case, the bench was hearing the plea moved by the coal India contending that since it operates Coal Mines covered under the Coal Mines Nationalisation Act, it would not come under the Competition Act. Therefore, the plea was opposed by CCI.
Accordingly, the competition watchdog had earlier, imposed a penalty for an amount of Rs 1,773 crore on Coal India for imposing unfair/discriminatory conditions in Fuel Supply Agreements with the power of producers for supply of the non-coking coal.