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The Locus Standi Conundrum: NCLAT, Competition Commission, and the Supreme Court

By Devashish Srivastava, Student at National Law University Odisha

The locus to approach or file an information before the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has been unclear in recent times. It was complicated further by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s (NCLAT) judgment in the matter of Samir Agrawal vs. CCI (Samir Agarwal case). Following the NCLAT’s judgment, the CCI got involved and changed the judicial stance to reflect the fundamental objective of the Competition Act, 2002 (the Act) in Harshita Chawla vs WhatsApp and Facebook (WhatsApp Case). Soon after CCI’s judgment in the WhatsApp Case, the Supreme Court settled the issue vide its order in the Samir Agrawal case in an appeal against the NCLAT’s order. The current article is a chronological study which seeks to analyse the aforesaid judgments passed by the judicial authorities.

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Jurisdiction Tussle between MSME Act and Arbitration Agreement: Opportunity Lies With the Supreme Court to Clear the Mist

By Khushi Mishra and Rajeev Dadhich, Students at Institute of Law, Nirma University

Since the enactment of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Act, 2006 (The “MSME Act”) a major dispute is between the institutional arbitration under Section 18 of the MSME Act and a sole arbitration as per Arbitration agreement (“AA”) constituted between the parties.  As per Section 18 of the MSME Act which is the non- obstante clause, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Facilitation Council shall either itself take up the dispute for arbitration or refer it to any institution to conduct arbitration. However, in the event of AA constituted between the parties, the parties are at the liberty to appoint a sole arbitrator to adjudicate their disputes. Therefore, the debated dispute ongoing is that what will prevail between institutional arbitration under section 18 and sole arbitration as per AA.

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Explicating Arbitrability of Fraud in India

By Alay Ninad Raje and Jaysinh Kela, Students at Institute of Law, Nirma University

Introduction

From time to time, the issue of arbitrability of fraud arises in order to ascertain whether the disputes involving allegations of fraud are capable of being resolved through arbitration instead of courts. The Supreme Court of India (SC) recently through the  judgment of Vidya Drolia & Ors. v. Durga Trading Corp., (“Vidya Drolia”) explicitly overruled N. Radhakrishnan v. Maestro Engineers (“Radhakrishnan”) judgment, and providing a pro-arbitration approach towards arbitrability of fraud, thereby bringing clarity on the subject matter.

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