PremiumAs the Supreme Court hears the plea of Google to stay the ₹1,337 crore penalty levied against the US tech giant by the Competition Commission of India (CCI), the Centre on Wednesday told the apex court that the world is watching how we deal with the issue.
N Venkatraman, the Additional Solicitor General who appeared before the court for the Centre said “This is a matter of primary importance. The world is looking at us."
The CCI accused Google of abusing its dominant position in the market under Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002. The penalty was levied as the company pre-loaded the Android phones sold in India, with its application, hurting the business of rival application developers.
Google initially made an appeal against the order in front of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), but the tribunal refused to stay the order after which the tech giant knocked on the door of the apex court. On Monday, the matter came up for hearing in front of the Supreme Court where the judges raised some crucial questions regarding the standards which the company follows in India as compared to Europe.
The bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud emphasized remaining on the merits of the case. “We will list the matter tomorrow and confine ourselves to the arguments on merit for seeking a stay," the judge said.
On Thursday, the company which is represented by senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi will be opening the arguments against the order of the NCLAT.
The court also suggested that they can refer the matter back to NCLAT as they are yet to hear the matter and have posted it for April. “NCLAT has not looked into their (Google) application for stay. Instead of us doing it, we can ask the NCLAT to do the same. They can appear on Monday and we may pass an order of no coercive steps by extending the stay (on payment of penalty) for two weeks," said the bench, also comprising justices Krishna Murari and PS Narasimha.
NCLAT has refused to stay the application and posted the same for April. The tribunal also asked the company to pay 10% of the total penalty within three weeks.
The Additional Solicitor General, Venkatraman added that the company should not get two innings for the same matter. “They cannot have two innings," referring to Google taking a chance before the NCLAT first and then in the Supreme Court. “If it is going to end in NCLAT we can understand," ASG added, requesting that the issue should be settled by the top court.