I.A. No. 143/2016 in Appeal No. 16 of 2016. Case: Gunny Trades Association Vs Indian Sugar Mills Association and Ors.. COMPAT (Competition Appellate Tribunal)
| Case Number | I.A. No. 143/2016 in Appeal No. 16 of 2016 |
| Judges | G.S. Singhvi, J. (Chairman) and Rajeev Kher, Member |
| Issue | Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC) - Order IX Rule 13; Section 151; Competition Act, 2002 - Sections 27, 3(1), 3(3)(a), 3(3)(b), 33, 53B |
| Judgement Date | November 15, 2016 |
| Court | COMPAT (Competition Appellate Tribunal) |
Order:
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In this application filed on 04.11.2016 under Order IX Rule 13 read with Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, applicant-Gunny Trades Association has prayed for recall of order dated 07.03.2016, by which Appeal No. 16 of 2016 filed by the applicant against order dated 31.10.2014 passed by the Competition Commission of India (for short, 'the Commission') under Section 27 of the Competition Act, 2002 (for short, 'the Act') in Case No. 38 of 2011 was dismissed in default along with I.A. No. 46/2016. The application is supported by an affidavit dated 28.09.2016 of Shri Sourav Das, who has described himself as an executive of Gunny Trades Association.
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The record of the case shows that the applicant had filed an appeal under Section 53B of the Act against order dated 31.10.2014, by which the Commission held the applicant and Indian Jute Mills Association guilty of having acted in contravention of Section 3(1) read with Section 3(3)(a)/3(3)(b) of the Act and imposed penalty of Rs. 35,169/- on the applicant and Rs. 7,68,527/- on Indian Jute Mills Association. Along with the appeal, the applicant also filed an application under Section 33 of the Act for interim relief.
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Since the appeal was defective, the Registry of the Tribunal sent letter dated 16.01.2015 to the applicant for curing the defects in accordance with Rule 5 of the Competition Appellate Tribunal (Form and Fee for Filing an Appeal and Fee for Filing Compensation Applications) Rules, 2009 within two weeks from the date of receipt of the letter. 5 more letters dated 01.04.2015, 18.05.2015, 16.06.2015,
09.12.2015 and 10.02.2016 were sent to the applicant for curing the defects. For almost one year and one month, the applicant did not bother to remove the defects pointed out by the office of the Tribunal and did the needful sometime in February, 2016. Thereafter, Appeal No. 16 of 2016 was listed before the Tribunal on 29.02.2016 along with I.A. No. 46 of 2016. On that day, no one appeared on behalf of the appellant-applicant. After taking cognizance of the belated removal of defects by the appellant-applicant, the Tribunal directed that the appeal be listed on 07.03.2016. The relevant portions of that order are extracted below:
This appeal was received by the Registry of the Tribunal by the registered post A.D. on 09.01.2015. The office report shows that the appellant did not remove defects for more than one year and one month despite seven letters sent by the Tribunal.
When it was brought to our notice that there are large number of cases in which the defects have not been...
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