Bombay High Court refuses to intervene in pleas by Asianet, Disney India, Star India against CCI for lack of territorial jurisdiction

The Bombay High Court on Friday decided not to exercise its territorial jurisdiction in the petitions filed by three broadcasting companies, Asianet Star Communications, Disney Broadcasting (India) Pvt Ltd and Star India (petitioners) in furtherance of an order of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) initiating investigation against such companies. [Asianet Star Communications Private Limited v. CCI and connected petitions].Senior advocates appearing for the companies requested the Court to extend the interim order granted in April 2022 directing the CCI to not take any coercive action against three broadcasters and media and entertainment companies. To this, the Bench of Justices SV Gangapurwala and Madhav Jamdar clarified that while they had held they were not exercising territorial jurisdiction, they had not held they did not inherent jurisdiction to hold old orders void ab initio.Allowing the request, the Bench held that considering the interim order was in force for almost five months, the same was continued for 10 days and after lapse of 10 days, the protection will come to an end. The interim order also included directions to the petitioners to furnish to the Director General of CCI the documentary material called for in response to the queries in furtherance of the order, on a without prejudice and no-equities basis..The three petitioners challenged an order of CCI passed on February 28, 2022 directing its Director General to initiate investigation under Section 26 of the Competition Act based on a complaint by ADNPL.ADNPL, which is in the business of distribution of TV channels to customers through local cable operators predominantly in Kerala, had contended in its complaint that broadcasters such as the petitioners, must not have discriminatory pricing in commercial contracts with multi-service operators such as ADNPL.In the complaint, ADNPL referred to the regulations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).The regulations prohibits discriminatory pricing in commercial contracts with multi-service operators.ADNPL stated that the petitioners by abusing their position of dominance, provided significant discounts to a direct competitor through allied agreements that apparently offered a cashback system.The petitioners intended to bypass the TRAI/TDSAT set-caps or upper limits with an intend to provide unfair advantage to ADNPL's competitor.In view of this, CCI ordered the Director General to conduct an investigation and submit a report within 60 days.The same came to be challenged before the High Court. .Counsels appearing for CCI opposed the petition on the point of jurisdiction stating that since the entire issue arose in Kerala, the challenge ought to have been in a court of Kerala.Supplementing CCI's argument, ADNPL submitted that the petitioners were subverting the TRAI/TDSAT norms causing prejudice to it. They both contended that all that CCI intended to do was data collection.After hearing both arguments extensively, the Court came to the conclusion that they would not be exercising their territorial jurisdiction in the case..Lawyers who appearedSenior Advocate Darius Khambata alongwith Senior Advocate Dr Mustafa Doctor with Advocates Kunal Dwarkadas, Rajendra Barot, Nafisa Khandeparkar, Ambareen Mujawar, Nitin Nair, Varun Thakur, Akshay Agarwal briefed by AZB Partners appeared for Star and Asianet Star.Senior Advocate Navroz Seervai along with Senior Advocate Dr Birendra Saraf with Advocates Pradeep Bakhru, Nikhil Gupta and Priyanka Chaddha briefed by Wadia Ghandy & Co. and Advocates Avinash Amarnath and Tarun Donadi from Chandhiok and Mahajan appeared for ADNPL.Advocate Somsekhar Sundaresan appeared with Advocates Abhishek Venkatraman, Viswajit Deb, Manu Chaturvedi, Malhar Desai Hafeez Patanwala briefed by Juris Corp for the CCI.Senior Advocate Sharan Jagtiani with advocates Sneha, Swikriti, Ranjeet, Kuber, Thomas and Mudit briefed by SaiKrishna & Associates appeared for Disney.Advocate Ruby Ahuja and Akshay of Karanjawala and Co also appeared for the batch of petitioners. .[Read order]