New Delhi, Nov 21: Taking strong exception to the way the Centre defended the appointment of a bureaucrat to head the new competition commission citing examples from abroad, the Supreme Court today said India need not copy what was being done in America or other countries, "We expected that it will be scrapped before we took up further hearing of the petition challenging the appointment of a bureaucrat to head the commission," a bench comprising chief Justice V N Khare and Justice S B Sinha observed. However, the situation was saved by the Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee who said that the government would delete Section 39 of the competition commission act under which respective High Courts were made the executing courts for the awards given by the commission. Senior advocate R K Jain, appearing for petitioner Brahm Dutt who has challenged the appointment of Commerce Secretary Deepak Chatterjee as the head of the commission, said that the government was saying something in the affidavit and telling something else to the court. Sorabjee reiterated that the government would delete the offending portion in a bid to assuage the feeling of the court that the High Courts were made subordinate to the commission headed by a bureaucrat.

However, after Sorabjee gave his undertaking, the bench praised him for "doing the fire fighting all the time in the court for the government".


Chief Justice Khare said, "Sorabjee is the champion of democracy and the entire country respects him for that. The court also respects him for that."


Bureau Report